The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture

by Edited by Zygmunt G. Baranski , Rebecca J. West

• ISBN13: 9780521550345
• ISBN10: 0521550343
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This collection of essays provides a comprehensive account of the culture of modern Italy. Contributions focus on a wide range of political, historical and cultural questions. The volume provides information and analysis on such topics as regionalism, the growth of a national language, social and political cultures, the role of intellectuals, the Church, the left, feminism, the separatist movements, organised crime, literature, art, design, fashion, the mass media, and music. While offering a thorough history of Italian cultural movements, political trends and literary texts over the last century and a half, the volume also examines the cultural and political situation in Italy today and suggests possible future directions in which the country might move. Each essay contains suggestions for further reading on the topics covered. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture is an invaluable source of materials for courses on all aspects of modern Italy.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Contributors	xii
Acknowledgments	xv
Note on translation	xvi
Chronology	xvii
Introducing modern Italian culture	1	(16)
Zygmunt G. Baranski
The notion of Italy	17	(18)
John Dickie
Social and political cultures in Italy from 1860 to the present day	35	(28)
Anna Cento Bull
Questions of language	63	(18)
Brian Richardson
Intellectuals, culture and power in modern Italy	81	(16)
David Ward
Catholicism	97	(16)
Percy Allum
Socialism, Communism and other `isms'	113	(18)
Robert S. Dombroski
Other voices: contesting the status quo	131	(20)
Sharon Wood
Joseph Farrell
Narratives of self and society	151	(22)
Gian-Paolo Biasin
Searching for new languages: modern Italian poetry	173	(24)
Shirley W. Vinall
Tom O'Neill
Drama: realism, identity and reality on stage	197	(18)
Ann Laura Lepschy
Italian cinema	215	(28)
Peter Bondanella
Art in modern Italy: from the Macchiaioli to the Transavanguardia	243	(22)
Eugenia Paulicelli
A modern identity for a new nation: design in Italy since 1860	265	(17)
Penny Sparke
Fashion: narration and nation	282	(11)
Eugenia Paulicelli
The media	293	(18)
Christopher Wagstaff
Since Verdi: Italian serious music 1860--1995	311	(14)
John C. G. Waterhouse
Folk music and popular song from the nineteenth century to the 1990s	325	(12)
Alessandro Carrera
Epilogue: Italian culture or multiculture in the new millennium?	337	(10)
Rebecca`J. West
Index	347