Copyright by Beatrice Giuseppina Mabrey 2015
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Copyright by Beatrice Giuseppina Mabrey 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Beatrice Giuseppina Mabrey Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: (Re)Membering the Past WWII-The Years of Lead in Contemporary Italian Literature, Theater, and Cinema Committee: Guy Raffa, Co-Supervisor Paola Bonifazio, Co-Supervisor Daniela Bini Carter Ruramisai Charumbira Giancarlo Lombardi (Re)Membering the Past WWII-The Years of Lead in Contemporary Italian Literature, Theater, and Cinema by Beatrice Giuseppina Mabrey, BA, MA Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2015 Dedication I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my parents, aunt, and fiancé, all of whom supported me throughout my academic career. I would also like to thank my grandparents who first shared their stories of this period with me and whose own experiences helped guide this project. Acknowledgements I extend my deepest gratitude to Professors Paola Bonifazio and Guy Raffa who served as co-supervisors on my dissertation committee. Not only did they endeavor to read countless drafts of each individual chapter and offer feedback at every point of my research, but their mentorship has been a truly vital part of my time at the University of Texas. They have given me opportunities that have helped me grow both personally and professionally and for that I am truly grateful. I would also like to thank Professor Daniela Bini to whom our program owes so much of its vitality. Her support has been an integral part of my UT experience and her work on my dissertation has helped me find new directions to explore and develop in the future. Professors Ruramisai Charumbira and Giancarlo Lombardi have also proven an invaluable resource throughout the dissertation writing process. Their knowledge and work within their respective fields is truly inspiriting and I could not have completed this step without them. To Antonella Olson, I owe so much of what I learned about teaching here at UT and I know that I will carry those lessons into my future pursuits. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the help and encouragement of my colleagues and of our graduate coordinator who have assisted me throughout my doctoral candidacy. To all the individuals listed above, I offer my sincerest thanks. v (Re)Membering the Past WWII-The Years of Lead in Contemporary Italian Literature, Theater, and Cinema Beatrice Giuseppina Mabrey, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 Co-Supervisor: Guy Raffa and Paola Bonifazio A cursory investigation of contemporary Italian literary, cinematic, and theatrical works produced since the 1990s reveals a marked interest in revisiting the dominant events of the twentieth century. Among the many episodes discussed, World War II, the postwar period, the 1968 protests, and the terrorist movements of the 1970s emerge as topics of particular interest for writers, playwrights, and cinematographers. Like the lieux de memoire described in Pierre Nora’s groundbreaking historiography, these “sites of memory” work through the “reciprocal overdetermination” of history and collective memory to act as bastions of national identity. This study examines a variety of works that draw upon Italy’s rich tradition of the historical novel and its most recent incarnation as the romanzo neostorico. Specifically, it shows how these works approach these sites of memory to unveil and explore the intricate web of memories and traumas underpinning the often-silencing narratives promoted by social and political institutions. Building on recent scholarship that advances the notion of a return to an engaged postmodernism, the author argues that these texts encourage their readers or spectators to engage with the formative sites of Italian national identity and to renegotiate their place within their own vi experiences. She claims that works such as Ascanio Celestini’s Radio Clandestina, Cristina Comencini’s Due Partite, and Francesca Melandri’s Più alto del mare engender a critical rereading of history by creating new myths. For the author, this rereading takes place predominantly through an encounter with memory. Consistent with Toni Morrison’s conception of “rememory,” these innovative works use individual and collective recollections of the events cited above (experienced or “inherited” by many of the authors and readers themselves) to reassemble a “dismembered” past and open a space for the development and expression of nascent and marginalized subjectivities. This, in turn, creates spaces for confronting pressing sociopolitical issues in contemporary Italy. vii Table of Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Tracing Itineraries...........................................................................................9 Mnemonic Constructions..............................................................................15 Chapter One- Back to the Beginning: Revisting the Memorial Legacies of Fascism and World War II..........................................................................................36 The Abc’s of Fascism: Revisting Childhood Under Fascism with Eco, Belotti, and Diritti.............................................................................................45 Into the archive: Umberto Eco’s La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana ....................................................................................................45 Lessons in Womanhood: Pedagogies of Gender in Elena Gianini Belotti’s Pimpì Oselì .................................................................................54 Language after Trauma: Giorgio Diritti’s L’uomo che verrà ..............64 The Politics of Inheritance: The Theatre of Celestini and Cristicchi ...........77 Empty spaces and popular voices: Ascanio Celestini’s Radio Clandestina ....................................................................................................79 Songs of Exile: Simone Cristicchi’s Magazzino 18.............................85 viii Chapter Two- Remembering The Postwar Period: Between Nostalgia and Forgetting ......................................................................................................................94 Jumping into Nostalgia: Stefano Benni’s Saltatempo ................................104 Memorial Reconstructions: Francesca Comencini’s In Fabbrica ..............112 The Ties that Bind: Cristina Comencini’s Due Partite...............................124 The Intrigues of Nostalgia: Wu Ming’s 54.................................................136 Chapter Three- Renegotiating the Formidable: Nostalgia, the Forgotten, and il Sessantotto ..................................................................................................154 Two sisters, One movement: Cristina Comencini’s Il cappotto del turco..164 Memories of Individual and Collective Conflict: Antonio Pennacchi’s Il fasciocomunista .................................................................................175 Accio Benassi and 1968 at the Movies: Daniele Luchetti’s Mio fratello è figlio unico...................................................................................................189 Morphing History: Michele Placido’s Il grande sogno ..............................201 The ABC’s of Protest: Giovanni Bertolucci’s In cerca del sessantotto .....212 ix Chapter Four- Recomposing the Lacerated Body of State: Gli Anni di Piombo in Text and Memory ................................................................................................226 Building Impegno: Marco Tullio Giordana’s La meglio gioventù and Romanzo di una strage ......................................................................................235 Marco Baliani- Recomposing the body in Corpo di Stato and L’occasione .... ...........................................................................................................265 Islands of Trauma: Francesca Melandri’s Più alto del mare......................284 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................302 Bibliography ........................................................................................................310 Primary Sources..........................................................................................310 Secondary Sources......................................................................................311 Vita ....................................................................................................................332 x Introduction In the most recent edition of Italo Calvino’s Le città invisibili (1972), Mondadori’s editorial team includes a presentation of the novel drawn from the conference held by Calvino with the students of Columbia University’s Graduate Writing Division on March 29, 1983. Referencing one of his most influential works, one that blends postmodern play with an incisive look at the tangible and intangible facets of the human experience as distilled through the cities conjured by Marco Polo for the Gran Khan, Calvino notes: “Le città sono un insieme di tante cose: di memoria, di desideri, di segni d’un linguaggio; le città sono luoghi di scambio, come spiegano tutti i libri di storia dell’economia, ma questi scambi non sono soltanto scambi di merci,