Italian Culture Research Articles

‘Pure Prima Der Coronavirus’. Representations of the COVID-19 Era in Italian Collective Comics

ABSTRACT The response of Italian comics artists to the COVID-19 pandemic was immediate and variegated. Since the first outbreak in the Western world, these artists have been reflecting on themes related to the pandemic, such as social and individual crises, awareness of climate change, the spread of misinformation and fake news, the dissemination of conspiracy theories through social media, institutional inadequacy, and the impact of these on underrepresented communities. This meditation through comics on COVID-19 related issues confirms the socio-cultural relevance of this medium in contemporary Italian culture, and its capacity to negotiate traumatic events during times of collective crisis. This article discusses a set of case studies of a particularly successful type of comics publication, collective comics, published in Italy since February 2020. These works show how pandemic graphic narratives can serve as a privileged observatory of the historical trends and current tendencies that characterise the present Italian comics world.

La sorella dell'Ave

This article seeks to give visibility in the Anglophone world to poet Ludovica Ripa di Meana (Rome, 1933–), a writer who has inhabited the twentieth and twenty-first century of Italian culture with a uniquely multifaceted presence. The author of three novels in verse and several works for the stage (in addition to a long career as a journalist, in TV and film production), Ripa di Meana’s poetic work has won prizes and drawn praise from critics like Cesare Segre and Cesare Garboli. At the same time, she remains relatively unknown in Italy and abroad—certainly not as well-known as her unique voice and style deserve. The interview and selected translation we present here bring attention to Ripa Di Meana’s poetry and personality in an international perspective. We include the interview with Ludovica that Jess Beasley and Silvia Valisa conducted in January and February 2024, together with excerpts from her first novel in verse, La sorella dell’Ave—The Story of Two Sisters (that is being currently cotranslated by Beasley and Valisa), with the goal of making her unique voice accessible to an Anglophone audience for the first time.

Embracing uncertainty post-COVID-19 crisis: insights from young people

This article explores the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on everyday life through a qualitative research study focusing on the role of age in managing uncertainty. Grounded in a cultural and symbolic perspective on risk, the study examines how rituals, emotions, and cultural contexts shaped the experiences of individuals aged 15–34 in Milan, Italy, as they navigated daily risks. Drawing on 42 semi-structured interviews conducted between September 2022 and May 2023, the findings reveal that age significantly influenced how young people navigated post-pandemic uncertainties. The youngest participants often felt fear and anxiety, mainly due to concerns for others’ well-being, coupled with a strong need for social interaction and community. In contrast, slightly older young professionals showed a more complex emotional response characterised by caution, frustration, and empathy. Across all age groups in the sample, daily routines and social interactions kept reinforcing societal norms and hierarchies, particularly concerning generations and family dynamics within Italian culture, with a specific emphasis on vulnerable populations, namely older adults. These findings highlight the importance of considering both life stage and cultural context when analysing responses to uncertainty. Still, they underscore young people’s adaptability as both a reactive process and a forward-looking one involving agency. This flexibility was particularly evident in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Lombardy region of Italy, where the virus spread earlier and with more severe consequences than in most parts of the Western world.

Intersubjectivity, Ethics in Times of Crisis and Objective Idealism as a Philosophical System: An Interview with Vittorio Hösle

Vittorio Hösle is internationally highly regarded for his attempt to revive objective idealism – the philosophical line along which he situates the positions of Plato, Aristotle, most medieval philosophers, Spinoza, Leibniz, Schelling, Hegel, but also Peirce and Whitehead – as a philosophical system capable of holding together the transcendental dimension of synthetic a priori judgments with the intelligibility and objectivity of being. In this interview, he discusses his work over the past decades, starting from the “Philosophische Lehrjahre” (“years of philosophical apprenticeship”) between Regensburg, Tübingen, Bochum and Freiburg and from the meetings with masters and significant interlocutors (such as Tóth, Thieme, Wandschneider, Beierwaldes, Lohr, Böckenförde, without forgetting Apel and Jonas). Multiple themes dot the path of thought retraced in this dialogue: from the rethematization of Hegel’s (and Vico’s) objective idealism through transcendental pragmatics to the delineation of the relationship between ethics and politics via a theory of the social and the intent of a normative foundation; from the need for a thought that faces the ecological crisis to the reinterpretation of sociobiology; and finally, from the project of an intersubjectively valid understanding to the importance of a theory of comedy. What emerges is the philosophical self-portrait of a cosmopolitan intellectual who was able to grasp the best from inherited and acquired cultural traditions: German culture, inherited from his father; Italian culture, inherited from his mother; and American culture, acquired by moving to the USA. The interview was realised on 17 April 2024 at the University of Trento, as part of the second series of lectures “Voices from Contemporary Philosophy”.

‘Abbiamo liberato un’Islamica’: deconstructing the argumentative legitimation of discriminatory attitudes against Silvia Romano

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the argumentative legitimation of discriminatory attitudes against Silvia Romano on Italian newspapers front pages. A volunteer-aid worker and activist, Romano was kidnapped in northeast Kenya in 2018 and eventually released after 18 months of captivity. Upon her return to Italy, a jilbāb-covered Romano declared she converted to Islam while held hostage and changed her name to Aisha. Romano’s conversion triggered a wave of exclusionary rhetoric across Italian media and opened the dam to a deluge of misogynous and Islamophobic attacks against the newly liberated activist, accused of having betrayed Catholic religion and Italian culture. Our corpus comprises 86 front pages from mainstream Italian newspapers of different ideological backgrounds, collected during the first week after Romano’s release in May 2020. Following the agenda of Multimodal Critical Discourse Studies and drawing on van Leeuwen’s language of legitimation, we study the recontextualization of social practice on the front pages and the main argumentation strategies, namely topoi, that emerge on the basis of this recontextualization, ending up argumentatively legitimizing discriminatory attitudes against the intended target.

Ad Nauseam: Nationalism and racism in Italian food stories

ABSTRACT This study delves into the complex ways in which narratives about food function as mediums for conveying nationalist and racist ideologies, highlighting a broad view that encompasses discriminatory ideologies like xenophobia, nativism, suprematism, and protectionism. Given the pivotal role of food in cultural identity and symbolism – a role particularly pronounced in the rich food heritage of Italian culture – this research offers profound insights into the subtle manifestations of nationalism and racism within the context of Italian food culture. Employing semi-structured interviews with thirty individuals from diverse backgrounds in the Italian food sector, including production, preparation, and distribution, the study unveils that expressions of nationalism and racism often stem from a deep-seated impulse to defend and protect Italian cultural heritage. However, the investigation also uncovers the inherent ambiguities and contradictions in these attitudes, illustrating how nationalist and racist sentiments are frequently set aside in efforts to promote and globalize Italian culinary traditions. This paradox underscores the complex and often contradictory nature of cultural nationalism and racism, challenging the consistency of such ideological stances in the face of globalization.

Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM)

The Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM) is used to assess interpersonal sensitivity. This study explored the factor structure, internal consistency, and criterion validity of the Italian version of the IPSM (IPSM-It) in non-clinical emerging adults. 374 participants aged between 18 and 31 years (64.4% female; M = 21.96, SD = 2.91) were included in the study. They completed the IPSM, the Beck Depression Inventory-I, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-II, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the original structure of the measure did not fit the data well. An exploratory factor analysis was also conducted and the results supported a 27-item version of the IPSM and a three-factor structure (Interpersonal Worry and Dependency, Low Self- Esteem, and Unassertive Interpersonal Behavior). The IPSM-It showed good internal consistency and criterion validity. The IPSM-It appeared to be a reliable and valid measure for assessing IPS in Italian culture.

Vittorio Cini tra Futurismo e Secondo Novecento: i rapporti con Marinetti e Palazzeschi

This article aims to present unpublished documents conserved in the Archivio Vittorio Cini in Venice and in the Archivio della Fondazione Ezio Franceschini in Florence. The research focuses on the entrepreneur Vittorio Cini and two personalities of Italian culture who lived in Venice for a certain period: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Aldo Palazzeschi. The archive material reveals the relationship between Vittorio Cini and the two writers and includes both the artistic and literary spheres. The correspondence between the senator and Palazzeschi shows the friendly relationship that existed between them. Moreover, the recipients and senders of the material presented in this essay include Enrico Prampolini, Vittore Branca and Bianca d’Apua, a little-known poetess whose unpublished poem is based on a painting by the Futurist painter Corrado Forlin.

Spinoza and Twentieth-century Italian Culture

The paper distinguishes between philosophy and culture and explains the reasons why it is preferable to investigate the relationships between Spinoza and the Italian culture (rather than philosophy) of the twentieth century. Italian culture is characterized by five prevailing forces: Roman Catholicism, the neo-idealism of Croce and Gentile, fascism, Marxism, the mass media. Spinoza’s conceptual world has remained foreign to Italian culture, where it has not been expressly opposed, as, for example, by the Catholic side. The paper then examines some of the main philosophical interpretations of Spinoza (as advanced by Giovanni Gentile, Piero Martinetti, Augusto Guzzo, and Antonio Banfi) showing the relationships between them, the philosophy of their authors, and some salient characteristics of the Italian culture of the century. The theologizing attitude of these philosophers (except Banfi), although expressed in different forms, led them to often misleading interpretations that contributed to nullifying a possible encounter between Spinoza and Italian culture. Finally, mention is made of the historical, philological and exegetical research which, over the last thirty years, has offered a new and significant contribution, with an international impact, to Spinoza studies.

Managing, surveying and assisting transgender people in prison: A comparative analysis of staff-members’ positioning toward transgender inmates among different correctional facilities in Italy

Background The present study intends to shed light on the (inter)subjective and professional modalities through which prison workers manage to cope with the presence of incarcerated transgender people in Italy. Method Fourteen semi structured interviews were undertaken with prison-workers in three Italian jails. The transcribed interviews were processed through text-mining-analysis, and an in-depth investigation of these discursive sources was performed to access the sociocultural representation of prison-workers concerning transgender related issues. Results Findings showed different discursive positionings, which vary significantly according to the professional role and gender identity of the interviewees. Although specialized training aimed at improving knowledge on transgender issues and interpersonal skills had been previously provided to all prison-workers, non-transgender affirming behaviors and attitudes continue to be observed. However, they may be the product of the persistence of cultural biases belonging to the more general societal context. Conclusions Specific training programs addressed to prison-workers are certainly necessary, but their real effectiveness should be constantly monitored and verified. At the same time, it seems that an effective improvement of the condition of transgender people within correctional facilities may only be obtained through paradigmatic changes concerning representations about gender nonconformity within the more general Italian culture and society.

From Mater Dolorosa to Mater Degenerata: Sacrifice and Subversion in Deledda’s Cenere and Duse’s Film

ABSTRACT In this article, I explore the presence of positivist and proto-Eugenic discourses in Grazia Deledda’s novel Cenere (1904) and the eponymous film adaptation by Febo Mari and Eleonora Duse, Cenere (1916). I introduce the term ‘mater degenerata’ as a trope that shows a direct influence of Lombrosian ideas on Italian literature and early Italian cinema. I argue that both authors are obsessed with the mother’s body, and their work reflects a diffused anxiety in Italian culture regarding unfit mothers. The essay has two main parts. In the first part, I introduce the ‘mater degenerata’ trope. In the second part, I offer a comparative analysis of Grazia Deledda’s novel and Febo Mari and Eleonora Duse’s film and highlight how Lombrosian positivist imageries were used in early twentieth-century Italian literature and cinema to depict the degenerate mother and to express social concerns regarding motherhood, reproduction, and national identity in liberal Italy.

Cristina Paravano. Massinger’s Italy: Re-Imagining Italian Culture in the Plays of Philip Massinger. New York: Routledge, 2023.

This review considers Cristina Paravano's Massinger’s Italy: Re-Imagining Italian Culture in the Plays of Philip Massinger.

NUOVA POESIA ITALIANA DAL 1980 A OGGI. NEW ITALIAN POETRY FROM 1980 TO THE PRESENT DAY. МOSCOW, 2023. 295 P

In 2023, a unique non-commercial edition was published in Moscow by the Italian Institute of Culture: the most extensive bilingual anthology of Italian poetry of the recent period. The book includes selections by 17 poets, and their performances could be heard during the Italian Culture Week in May 2021, held at the Rudomino Library of Foreign Literature. The book includes selections of texts published in 1985-2022 in translations by E. Solonovich, V. Kazartseva and the staff of the Institute of Italian Culture. The foreword by D. Rizzi, Director of the IIC, gives a holistic view of the book and the process of its creation. The article by the influential Italian scholar A. Afribo Traits and Faces of New Italian Poetry (translated by A. Yampolskaya) helps the reader to navigate the variety of poetic voices presented.

From evangelist to sinologist: Matteo Ricci’s secularization in post-unification Italy

ABSTRACT The current discourse on Matteo Ricci often focuses on his remarkable contributions to sinology and his role as a bridge between Chinese and Italian cultures. However, it is important to note that this perspective has not been constant throughout history. Over the years, Ricci’s image has undergone significant changes, and only recently has he been recognized as someone who embodies values that go beyond the strictly Catholic dimension. This article examines a crucial moment in this transformation, which occurred towards the end of the nineteenth century within the academic circles of post-unification Italy. During that period, the discussion around Ricci expanded to encompass his identity as a sinologist, that overlapped or ran alongside his identity as a missionary.

Bonsaver, Guido. America in Italian Culture: The Rise of a New Model of Modernity, 1861–1943.

Bonsaver, Guido. America in Italian Culture: The Rise of a New Model of Modernity, 1861–1943.

The Application of Husserlian Phenomenology to the Examination of the Translatability of Criminal Law Practices Across American and Italian Culture in the Prosecution and Acquittal of Amanda Knox

AbstractThis Article uses various concepts of Husserlian phenomenology to explain the disparate opinion between the North American and Italian public in response to the prosecution and ultimate acquittal of Amanda Knox. This Article argues that the comparative difference in public opinion is due to an extensive shift in culture that is necessarily accompanied by a shift in spatial-temporal location. In this Article, the Husserlian concepts of intentionality, the Self, the Other-I, and empathy overlay the judicial opinions and media releases critical to shaping North American and Italian public perceptions of Amanda Knox. As applied, these Husserlian concepts function as interpretive lenses, providing the reader with a novel framework for analyzing the cause of interpretive difference across cultures.

Coming of Age among Multiple Languages: Exploring the ‘Polyglot’ as an Intersectional Subject in Claudia Durastanti’s La Straniera (2019)

ABSTRACT Claudia Durastanti belongs to a new generation of Italian writers who embrace life on the move, writing outside of the borders of Italy and living between different languages and cultures. Durastanti’s memoir, La straniera (2019), is the personal story of the writer moving between New York, Basilicata, Rome, and London. The constant code-switching due to the author’s double nationality is also entangled in the sign language spoken by Durastanti’s deaf mother. By analysing Durastanti’s linguistic coming of age through a second language and the relationship with her mother, this article aims to discuss the writer’s position as a polyglot as well as a nomadic subject. In the representation offered by Durastanti, Italian culture and language do not prevail over other languages and cultures but interact with them, contributing to the creation of a new intersectional subjectivity.

Transatlantic literary transfers in the Second Italian Renaissance: the circulation of Italian culture in the U.S. in the post-war era

ABSTRACT This article introduces the special issue “Transatlantic literary transfers in the Second Italian Renaissance: the circulation of Italian culture in the U.S. in the Post-war Era”, presenting new knowledge on the collaborative, transnational network that emerged between Italy and the U.S. in the post-war years and facilitated the circulation of Italian literary products in the U.S. By considering literary objects as a special class of products that participated to the establishment and consolidation of “Made in Italy”, and by showing how Italian literary cultures functioned as vectors of a “new” Italian modernity, the article claims that the success of “Made in Italy” was due in no small part to a storytelling strategy that emphasized: (1) the strong friendship between the two nations in the context of the new, globalized world; and (2) the mobilization of the trope of the Renaissance in the service of a projected continuity between Italian early and “new” modernity.

First Case of Medically Assisted Suicide in Italy Set New Legal Perspectives.

The first act of assisted suicide in Italy was recently carried out. This event is an absolute novelty for the country, affected by recent legislative changes aimed only at introducing the right to interrupt health treatments and, therefore, carry out exclusively omissive end-of-life acts. These normative provisions lay their foundations in a cultural context centered on the protection of the right to life and health; however, the cases that have occurred over time, including the famous story of DJ Fabo, have led the Constitutional Court to re-evaluate these dictates, introducing in 2019 the right to resort to assisted suicide procedures within well-defined areas, including incurability of the condition, the serious suffering of the individual and the retained ability to stand trial. The case addressed concerns a quadriplegic subject who was the victim of a road accident. Following consultation with a specialized institution, the subject made the decision to undergo an assisted sui-cide procedure in Italy. Having obtained the authorization from the competent authorities, he started a fundraiser to finance the devices and drugs required and, finally, he died. The opening by Italy towards the assisted suicide procedure represents a great step towards a broad context, as well as a decisive act for the purpose of protecting the right to self-determination of the individual. However, the current legislative framework presents significant criticalities and shortcomings. In first place, the dissonance between the laws in force and the judicial sentences is likely to generate problems of uneven application of the rules in a country dominated by the principle of Civil Law. Furthermore, the need for the applicant to fully self-finance the procedure clearly clashes with the constitutional principle of free access to care. Then emerges the need for a guideline document regarding the completion of the procedure itself, the times, methods and drugs implied, in order to significantly reduce the decision-making process by the ethics committees that still weighs on each individual case. Finally, conside-ring what has been observed on the subject of voluntary termination of pregnancy, it is necessary to ask what will be the general orientation of the doctors called to perform the act and whether they will be given the opportunity to express their refusal. The case analyzed could represent the beginning of a new era for Italian culture, but the large-scale application of assisted suicide procedures requires the introduction of legislative provisions that definitively eliminate the critical issues that have emerged so far.

Displacing perspectives on Renaissance: Cultural translation and the politics of Italian literature at the onset of the Cold War

ABSTRACT While the popularity achieved by several Italian cultural objects in the United States during the aftermath of World War Two has been largely acknowledged, the meanings these artefacts took on in their new cultural context are yet to be understood. To unravel the complex, multi-layered processes of cultural translation at play in transatlantic transfers at the onset of the Cold War, this article explores the U.S.-American reception of Italian culture from the vantage point of translated fiction. Retracing the public discourse around new Italian books in the United States means to recognize the emergence of a new framing narrative, that of a novel Renaissance taking place in Italy after the end of the Fascist period. Understanding the concept of a new Renaissance from a transnational perspective, at a time in which the public discourse was being reorganized across all media in response to the new geopolitical order, allows us to identify the politics of newly translated Italian fiction in the U.S. I argue that, through its framing, Italian fiction was made an ally in the cultural Cold War, coming to represent Western democracy, freedom, and creativity.