Synopses & Reviews
This book examines the transformation of the Italian city from the 1950s to the present with particular attention to questions of identity, migration and changes in urban culture. It focuses on two phases of that transformation: the years of accelerated industrialisation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the period of de-industrialisation and postmodernity beginning in the 1980s. It shows how major demographic movements and cultural shifts threw into relief new conceptions of the city whose old boundaries had become problematic. Design, fine art, literature, youth culture, film and social history all provide focal points. The contributions bring specialist expertise to each area, while the extensive illustrations give a vivid picture of the contemporary visual culture for which Italian cities are famed. This is a genuinely interdisciplinary approach by Italian and English-speaking historians and scholars of urban studies, literature, architecture and design which introduces new debates and research to an English-speaking audience for the first time. Extensive illustrations provide a vivid picture of contemporary Italian visual culture.
Review
“An innovative collection of essays by an impressive range of contributors. There is a need for this book. It will have several audiences and a wide ‘cross-over appeal.” -Martin Brown, Senior Lecturer in History, Staffordshire University
Martin Brown
Synopsis
This book examines the transformation of the Italian city from the 1950s to the present with particular attention to questions of identity, migration and changes in urban culture. It shows how major demographic movements and cultural shifts threw into relief new conceptions of the city in which old boundaries had become problematic.
Synopsis
This book examines the transformation of the Italian city from the 1950s to the present with particular attention to questions of identity, migration and changes in urban culture. It focuses on two phases of that transformation: the years of accelerated industrialisation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the period of de-industrialisation and postmodernity beginning in the 1980s. It shows how major demographic movements and cultural shifts threw into relief new conceptions of the city whose old boundaries had become problematic. Design, fine art, literature, youth culture, film and social history all provide focal points. The contributions bring specialist expertise to each area, while the extensive illustrations give a vivid picture of the contemporary visual culture for which Italian cities are famed. This is a genuinely interdisciplinary approach by Italian and English-speaking historians and scholars of urban studies, literature, architecture and design which introduces new debates and research to an English-speaking audience for the first time. Extensive illustrations provide a vivid picture of contemporary Italian visual culture.
About the Author
Robert Lumley is Professor of Italian Cultural History, University College London. He is editor, with Jonathan Morris, of The New History of the Italian South: The Mezzogiorno Revisited (UEP, 1997) and, with D. Forgacs, of Italian Cultural Studies (OUP, 1996).
John Foot is Lecturer in Italian History, University College London. He is the author of Milan since the Miracle: City, Culture and Identity (Berg, 2001) and Modern Italy (Palgrave, 2003).
Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsList of MapsIllustration AcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgements Signposts: An IntroductionRobert Lumley and John Foot Part I: Overview 1. Through the Looking-Glass: Research on the Italian City in Historical PerspectiveSergio Pace Part II: Migration: Old Cities, New Identities 2. The Two Waves: Milan as a City of Immigration, 1955-1995Gianfranco Petrillo 3. Revisiting the Coree. Self Construction, Memory and Immigration on the Milanese Periphery, 1950-2000John Foot 4. Immigration, Nationalism and Exclusionary Understandings of Place in TurinLaura Maritano Part III: Urban Renewal and Troubled Modernity 5. Architectural Utopias and
La Nuova Dimensione: Turin in the 1960sMary Louise Lobsinger 6. Architecture and Modernity in Post-war MilanHalldora Arnardottir 7. Turin after Arte Povera: A New City of Art?Robert Lumley 8. Contested Claims to Public Space: The Re-imaging of Naples and the Case of Piazza PlebiscitoNicholas Dines Part IV: Urban Fictions: "High" and "Low" 9. Calvino in Turin: Writer and EditorClaudia Nocentini 10. Crime and the City in the Detective Fiction of Giorgio ScerbanencoGuiliana Pieri 11. Imaginary Cities: Space and Identity in Italian Literature of ImmigrationSandra Ponzanesi Part V: Grey Zones: Cinema and the City 12. Scenarios of Modernity: Youth Culture in 1950s MilanEnrica Capussotti 13. Palermo in the Films of Cipri and MarescoAbele Longo Endpiece 14.
Adriati-citta: Notes on a Post-industrial LandscapePippo Ciorra NotesIndex