ABSTRACT This special issue focuses on one of the most longstanding, international, and large scale exhibitions: the Venice Biennale. The keywords ‘art’, ‘agency’ and ‘market’ act as methodological pathways to investigate the evolution of its rich visual library. The texts offer a diachronic approach highlighting significant points of friction and continuity. Marie Tavinor and Davide Lacagnina focus

ABSTRACT The literature generally hails Antonio Fradeletto (1858-1930), first general secretary of the Biennale between 1895 and 1914, as instrumental in organising the venture and in setting forth its artistic and commercial direction in conjunction with the City Mayor, president of the Biennale. During these early ‘heroic’ years of the Biennale, the general secretary concentrated a lot of power in

(2021). Storia dell’Italia contemporanea, 1943–2019. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 354-356.

ABSTRACT This article proposes an explanation of Italy’s economic and social divide by taking account of the institutional legacy left by French political control during the period 1796–1814. Using a new data set regarding the duration of French domination and ‘bridging’ social capital in Italy in the nineteenth century, we find that a prolonged French presence is associated with a higher level of

ABSTRACT This article examines film consumption within the Fascist empire of Italian East Africa (1936–1941). In dialogue with recent scholarship exploring social and cultural aspects of the Italian presence in the Horn of Africa, it draws on original archival research to investigate the stories, theories and practices underpinning the Fascist intervention. The implementation of itinerant screening

ABSTRACT During the cold war, Italian neo-fascism had an impressive transnational dimension, which is receiving increasing scholarly attention. The Italian post-war context played a pivotal role in shaping neo-fascist militants’ identity as a proudly marginalized warrior elite: the extent to which this underwent a shift in the transnational context is nonetheless yet to be determined. Adopting a narrative

(2021). Sensibilities of the Risorgimento. Reason and passions in political thought. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 357-358.

(2021). America in Italy: the United States in the political thought and imagination of the Risorgimento, 1763–1865. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 359-360.

(2021). Hemingway in Italy. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 360-362.

(2021). Italian mafias today: territory, business and politics. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 362-364.

(2021). Hacked transmission: technology and connective activism in Italy. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 366-368.

(2021). Giallo!: genre, modernity, and detection in Italian horror cinema. Journal of Modern Italian Studies. Ahead of Print.

(2021). Italian Goth subculture. Kindred creatures and other dark enactments in Milan, 1982–1991. Journal of Modern Italian Studies. Ahead of Print.

(2021). Il 1917 in Toscana. Proteste e conflitti sociali. Journal of Modern Italian Studies. Ahead of Print.

ABSTRACT For many decades the work of Edward Said has dominated, and largely continues to dominate, the ways in which ‘Orientalism’ and the cultural relations between Europe and Asiatic diversities have been studied. The aim of these articles is not to add yet another chapter to the now vast debates on the category of Orientalism as proposed by Said, but instead through a series of specific research

ABSTRACT This introduction aims to suggest connections between the articles published in this special number. While Orientalist stereotypes were recurrent in many of the writings discussed here, there was considerable variety in Italian approaches to the Orient. They were differentiated according to the needs and intellectual traditions of cities and regions (Turin, Milan, Florence, Naples and Sicily)

ABSTRACT Florence as the capital for a new united Italy became a flourishing, and brief, centre for indian studies. This experience was always entangled with Angelo De Gubernatis’s biography and initiatives and when he left for Rome, the city lost its role. Having decided to leave his rich and prolific archive in Florence’s main public library meant, however, that Gubernatis returned to the city and

(2021). Italian uses of Orientalism from the Risorgimento to fascism. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italy’s Orient, pp. 220-226.

(2021). Andreotti e l’Italia di confine. Lotta politica e nazionalizzazione delle masse (1947–1954), by Paolo Gheda and Federico Robbe, Milan, Edizioni Angelo Guerini e Associati, 2015, 279 pp., €24.50 (soft cover), ISBN: 9788862505857. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italy’s Orient, pp. 227-229.

(2021). Facing the crisis: ethnographies of work in Italian industrial capitalism, by Fulvia D’Aloisio and Simone Ghezzi (eds), New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2020, 211 pp., $135.00 (hard cover), ISBN: 9781789207804. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italy’s Orient, pp. 229-231.

(2021). Giuseppe Bottai e la Germania nazista: I rapporti italo-tedeschi e la politica culturale fascista, by Nicola D’Elia, Rome, Carocci, 2019, 199 pp., €22 (soft cover), ISBN: 9788843096763. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italy’s Orient, pp. 231-234.

(2021). The third Rome, 1922–1943. The making of the fascist capital. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italy’s Orient, pp. 234-236.

(2021). L’Obiezione di Coscienza nell’Italia Repubblicana. Journal of Modern Italian Studies. Ahead of Print.

ABSTRACT The history of Italian musical migration to London is rich and complex. From the beginning of the eighteenth century Italian musicians played a major role in Georgian society. During the Victorian era, despite a relative lack of scholarly research, new generations of Italian musicians moved to London, acquiring a recognized social status. Nevertheless, musicians and divas involved in London

ABSTRACT The new Italian vocal style that arrived in Britain at the end of the seventeenth century with teachers such as Pietro Reggio and Pier Francesco Tosi – and which soon became regarded as the epitome of vocal expertise – was the sound of italianità as much as it was a pragmatic mode of vocal production. My intention in this article is to trace emerging patterns of Italian singing teachers who

ABSTRACT In the period spanning the years 1845–1901, Verdi came to be understood not only as the most influential representative of Italian opera worldwide, but also as the symbol of a musical tradition that was said to be in a constant state of decline. On the other hand, in Victorian London, Italy was still nostalgically portrayed as the country whose very language was music, where the gondolieri

ABSTRACT This article explores the little-known, yet significant figure of the composer and Professor of Singing, Alberto Antonio Visetti (1844–1928). While his biography is still obscure and contested, his commitment to develop Anglo-Italian cultural relations was certainly pioneering. One of Visetti’s most remarkable achievements was to create a cultural exchange between the Royal College of Music

ABSTRACT Italian opera was simultaneously popular and unfashionable in interwar Britain. It was popular with audiences from across the class spectrum. It was unfashionable with intellectuals who were anxious about its modularity, its collaborative model of production, and its interactions with popular culture and celebrity. This article considers the reception of Italian opera, its performers and audiences

ABSTRACT Between 1880 and 1940 paternalist, philanthropic initiatives promoted the arts as an instrument to improve the condition of working people, and offer leisure opportunities to the aspiring classes of East London away from the West End. The foundation of the People’s Palace in 1887 created opportunities for operatic performances which brought together philanthropist volunteers and local people

(2021). Fare gli italiani, a loro insaputa. Musica e politica dal Risorgimento al Sessantotto. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italian Musical Migration to London, pp. 88-89.

(2021). Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, from Arcadia to revolution: the Neapolitan monitor and other writings. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italian Musical Migration to London, pp. 90-91.

(2021). Reframing migration. Lampedusa, border of spectacle, and aesthetics of subversion. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italian Musical Migration to London, pp. 91-92.

(2021). Matera,1945–1960: the history of a ‘national disgrace’. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italian Musical Migration to London, pp. 93-95.

(2021). Italy and the US. Cultural change through language and narrative. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italian Musical Migration to London, pp. 95-97.

(2021). After identity: migration, critique, Italian American culture. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italian Musical Migration to London, pp. 97-99.

(2021). Le tecnologie dell’informazione nella scrittura di Italo Calvino e Paolo Volponi. Tre storie di rimediazione. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italian Musical Migration to London, pp. 100-101.

(2021). Delirious Naples: a cultural history of the city of the sun. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 26, Italian Musical Migration to London, pp. 102-104.

ABSTRACT The article analyses the visions of the East which appear in some ‘popular’ illustrated journals in Milan during the second half of the 19th century, published by Emilio Treves and Edoardo Sonzogno. The accounts by male and female intellectuals, historians, diplomats, explorers, geographers and scientists, allow us to reconstruct an important dimension in the circulation of knowledge to what

ABSTRACT Since the end of WWII, Atlanticism has always been one of the lodestars of Italy’s foreign policy. Although the country’s relations with the U.S. have never been disputed, its degree of autonomy from the Transatlantic partnership has changed over the years. This article delves into such changes starting from a counter-intuitive analytical framework based on the neo-realist theory of International

ABSTRACT The Tuscan poet, playwright and democratic activist Filippo Pananti (1766–1837) was captured by Algerian corsairs in the Mediterranean on his way back to Italy from England in 1813 and was briefly held captive before being released thanks to the intervention of a British diplomat. He published a highly coloured and melodramatic account of his sufferings, together with a description of the

ABSTRACT Between 1940 and 1945 Italy experienced all the trials of total war. Subsequently, Italian historiography has focused on reconstructing the causes of civilian losses during the conflict. Much less attention has been paid to official recognition of, and assistance to, the members of the civil population who survived the conflict. This article will show how the inadequate legislative preparations

(2020). Queer Ventennio. Italian fascism, homoerotic art the nonmodern in the modern. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 25, No. 5, pp. 671-673.

ABSTRACT This article looks at boundaries as shared points of conflict and sociality in rural Sicily where the mafia and their opponents (‘antimafia’ cooperatives) have lately been at loggerheads. My focus is on neighbourly relations between owners of plots on both sides. This uncomfortable proximity of enemies allows us to see boundaries as more than markers of separation. For sure, Sicilian boundaries

(2020). Photography as power. Dominance and resistance through the Italian lens. Journal of Modern Italian Studies: Vol. 25, No. 5, pp. 673-675.

ABSTRACT The article analyses, through the use of primary sources, the relationship between emigration and madness during the Italian transatlantic migration at the beginning of the twentieth century. During that years, mental illness started to spread among returning emigrants, while the countries of destination showed their disfavour towards new emigration, especially the one coming from the South

ABSTRACT This article examines the progressive inclusion of the term ‘homophobia’ on the pages of two relevant Italian liberal newspapers (Corriere della Sera and la Repubblica) between 1979 and 2007. Combining frequency analysis and critical discourse analysis, we aim at reconstructing when and how the term ‘homophobia’ became a keyword in various public debates on the country’s sexual modernization

ABSTRACT In Italy, tomatoes exist at the intersection of national-cultural culinary pride, Mediterranean petro-politics, agro-environmental policy, and even gender politics. They occupy such an important place in the Italian imaginary, and in the world’s imaginary of Italy, that their cultural and culinary stature obscures the deplorable conditions of their production, and silences the voices of those

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the ethnographic case study of a festival revival observed in Celano, a hill town in Abruzzo (Italy). On 17 January, in accordance with the Catholic calendar, the community celebrates the feast of Saint Anthony the Abbot. In the folkloric iconography, the Saint is strongly connected with animals, specifically the pig, which is even represented with him in the sacred

ABSTRACT In the eighteenth century, public statuary shifted from the commemoration of princes to the celebration of ‘great men’: men, less so women, who had excelled in the arts and sciences, on the battlefield or in the political-administrative realm. Reflecting ancient and Renaissance virtue ethics, these public recognitions of virtuous behaviour (exempla virtutis) were intended to encourage emulation

ABSTRACT This article examines the formation of working class identities in Italy and Germany in the decades around 1900. The two ‘belated’ nation states varied considerably in their social, economic and political conditions. While Imperial Germany experienced rapid urbanization and large-scale industrialization, Italy, by contrast, saw the emergence of just a few highly industrialized regions by the

ABSTRACT A commentary on the contributions to this Special Issue.

ABSTRACT This special issue reconsiders the process of nation-building in nineteenth-century Italy and Germany before nationalism formed, for the majority of people, the dominant group identity. We will argue that non-national ‘identity containers’ and their interplay with emerging nationalism were essential for the creation of patriotic sensibilities among Italians and Germans, both before and after

ABSTRACT During the period Koselleck called the Sattelzeit (roughly 1750 to 1850) princely chambers of curiosities became public museums that the elites visited for educational purposes. The Louvre in Paris served as the principal model. Here, after 1800, a chronological (and canonical) collection came into being and that would be emulated by other European rulers. The plurality of territorial states

A first remark it seems necessary to make is the following: any integration process generally presupposes boundaries and limits. Further, the urge to integrate into something – in the cases here co...

ABSTRACT This article discusses the legal and political status of women and Jews during the phase of German and Italian nation-building, addressing both the lack of participation as well as the strategies of historical actors who hoped to be accepted as equal members of the national community. It focuses on a number of exemplary protagonists whose initiatives demonstrate the options Jewish women in

Within the larger debate over Italians’ attitudes toward the decision to join the Second World War on Germany’s side, and their subsequent attitude toward fighting alongside the Nazis, the question...

ABSTRACT This article challenges traditional narratives that have tended to highlight the role of opera as a tool of political nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe. Instead, I will show how opera (both the form and the repertoire) served as a means of creating cultural and intellectual connections between peoples, and how it participated in the emergence of a European public. Claims that particular

From the European migration crisis of 2015 onwards, the refugee and migration issue in Italy has become central to the production of a political imaginary centred on hostility. Through the lenses o...

ABSTRACT In this article the author analyses the Fascists’ ability, after the end of the war, to present a memory of the recent past which achieved its aims at least among a significant number of Italians. The success of the Fascist memoirist literature was helped by its tendency to replicate arguments made in post-war courts by people charged with collaborationism. Another important factor was the