The Digitization of post-World War II Italian Literary Journals

Abstract

In recent years, the digitization of journals has gained ground as an important way of assessing the production of essays and literary writings within their original context of publication. Periodicals from the second half of the twentieth century, however, have attracted much less attention, despite their vast and diverse production as well as the presence of paramount contributors. Usually printed on cheap paper in very few copies, many of those journals can prove difficult to find and delicate to handle. This article aims to outline the state of the art of the Italian literary journals digitized at present and available online, and to examine some fundamental databases in our research: RIDI (Riviste digitali e digitalizzate italiane. Un contributo per l’Emeroteca digitale nazionale), Gino Bianco’s library (Emeroteca), CIRCE (Catalogo Informatico Riviste Culturali Europee) and Fondazione Mondadori’s archives (“Tirature”).