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Kate Elizabeth Willman PhD Thesis September 2015 NEW ITALIAN EPIC History, Journalism and the 21st Century ‘Novel’ Italian Studies School of Modern Languages and Cultures University of Warwick 1 ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~ Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………...... 4 Declaration …………………………………………………………………………………... 5 Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………….... 6 INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………..... 7 - Wu Ming and the New Italian Epic …………………………………………………. 7 - Postmodern Impegno ……………………………………………………………….. 12 - History and Memory ……………………………………………………………….. 15 - Representing Reality in the Digital Age ………………………………………….... 20 - Structure and Organisation …………………………………………………………. 25 CHAPTER ONE ‘Nelle lettere italiane sta accadendo qualcosa’: The Memorandum on the New Italian Epic ……………………………………………………………………..... 32 - New ………………………………………………………………………………… 36 - Italian ……………………………………………………………………………….. 50 - Epic …………………………………………………………………………………. 60 CHAPTER TWO Periodisation ………………………………………………………….. 73 - 1993 ………………………………………………………………………………… 74 - 2001 ............................................................................................................................ 94 - 2008+ ........................................................................................................................ 113 CHAPTER THREE The Recurring Theme of ‘la Morte del Vecchio’ ………………. 119 - ‘La nostra condizione di postumi’ ............................................................................ 123 2 - Medium and Italia De Profundis by Giuseppe Genna ............................................. 134 - Nelle mani giuste by Giancarlo De Cataldo ............................................................. 149 CHAPTER FOUR On the New Italian Epic Historical Novels ………………………. 163 - Manzoni’s Legacy ………………………………………………………………… 167 - Una storia romantica by Antonio Scurati ................................................................ 178 - Timira. Romanzo meticcio by Antar Mohamed and Wu Ming 2 ............................. 191 CHAPTER FIVE Literature of Experience ……………………………………………. 203 - Reality, Representation, Reportage ……………………………………………….. 205 - Gomorra by Roberto Saviano …………………………………………………….. 222 - Sappiano le mie parole di sangue by Babsi Jones ................................................... 236 CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………………... 250 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………. 256 3 ~ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ~ I would like to thank Jennifer Burns and Fabio Camilletti, both as academic supervisors and as friends, for all the support they have generously given me throughout my time at the University of Warwick, where I have also been lucky enough to have discussed my ideas with, and learnt from, a large number of staff members and fellow researchers in a lively and friendly environment. Special mention goes to Martina Piperno and Giacomo Comiati for kindly letting me be their occasional housemate whilst at Warwick. The three months I spent during my PhD at the British School at Rome were hugely enriching too, not only because I was able to conduct research ‘on the ground’ in Italy, but also due to the conversations I had there with friends, scholars and writers. Indeed, over the last three years, I have benefitted greatly from coming into contact with a number of writers connected to my research: Letizia Muratori, Giovanni Cattabriga, Roberto Bui, Giancarlo De Cataldo and Giorgio Vasta. I would not have been able to come this far without the excellent teaching and warm support from staff members during my previous studies at school and university. During my B.A. at the University of Bristol, Charles Burdett, Ruth Glynn and Bradley Stephens particularly encouraged and inspired me, and Federico Bonaddio, Alicia Kent and Rosa Mucignat did the same during my M.A. at King’s College London. Last but not least, I cannot thank my wonderful friends and family enough for all they have done for me, especially Sean Jackson, Claire and Michael Willman, Christine Fouirnaies, Eleanor Guyon, James Hawkey, Amy Peskett, the Secret Seven and Tom Stevenson. This thesis is dedicated to my parents, John and Margaret Willman, for all their love and support, and for letting me finish my book even when dinner was ready. 4 ~ DECLARATION ~ This thesis is the candidate’s own work except where it contains work based on collaborative research, in which case the nature and extent of the author’s individual contribution shall be indicated. This thesis has not been submitted for a degree at another university. 5 ~ ABSTRACT ~ This study examines the recent literary phenomenon known as the New Italian Epic, a label coined by Wu Ming 1 in a document called the Memorandum in 2008. Wu Ming 1 used the label New Italian Epic to describe a corpus of Italian texts, mainly published after the year 2000, that are an unusual mix of genres, styles and media, and that have a renewed sense of political and ethical commitment. After describing the phenomenon and outlining the main theoretical underpinnings to my analysis of it, I examine the Memorandum in detail, in order to individuate the ideas that will resurface throughout the study, related to postmodernism, new technologies, history and memory studies, epic, realism, and the role of literature in society. This is followed by a periodisation, which traces developments in recent history and literature that influenced the New Italian Epic phenomenon, including the Cannibal and migrant writers of the nineties, the violent events at the G8 protest in Genoa in 2001, and the political and cultural climate in Italy in the new millennium. I go on to analyse three key themes that particularly stand out in the New Italian Epic texts – the recurring theme of the death of the father, the use of the historical novel form, and texts that seem to be journalistic, but sometimes change or distort reality – each of which is accompanied by close reading of two or three novels from the New Italian Epic corpus, and compared to other previous or contemporary cultural developments in Italy and abroad. I conclude by considering the interactions between literature and film in the twenty-first century, and suggest that the ‘unidentified narrative objects’ we have seen throughout the study seem to be a particular product of our times. 6 ~ INTRODUCTION ~ Wu Ming and the New Italian Epic The label New Italian Epic was first coined in 2008 by Wu Ming 1 in a document called the Memorandum,1 which described a corpus of hybrid texts published in Italy mainly after the year 2000. Wu Ming 1 is the pseudonym of Roberto Bui, a member of the writing collective Wu Ming, which means in Mandarin alternatively ‘five names’, although since 2008 there have only been four members, or ‘anonymous’, used by Chinese dissidents desiring freedom of expression.2 The Wu Ming Foundation initially started out under the auspices of the Luther Blissett Project, ‘a multi-use name, an “open reputation” informally adopted and shared by hundreds of artists and social activists all over Europe’.3 As well as engaging in politically-motivated pranks, the future members of Wu Ming wrote the best- selling novel Q in 1999 using the name Luther Blissett, which marked the beginning of their literary career.4 Subsequent novels were signed Wu Ming, and solo projects or collaborations with other authors saw the individual members using numbers rather than their proper names. 1 The name was chosen to indicate that these were initial, provisional ideas rather than a concrete manifesto (as I discuss in chapter one). The document first appeared online in April 2008, and then a second version appeared in September of the same year, with additional footnotes, an introduction and a postscript (see Wu Ming 1 2008a). The following year, another extended version became part of a book entitled New Italian Epic. Letteratura, sguardo obliquo, ritorno al futuro, with a collective introduction by Wu Ming, alongside Wu Ming 1’s talk on the New Italian Epic and an essay by Wu Ming 2. 2 Wu Ming 3 left the collective in 2008. See Wu Ming, ‘Wu Ming Foundation: Chi siamo, cosa facciamo’, Giap, http://www.wumingfoundation.com/italiano/biografia.htm (accessed 07.08.15). See also Baird 2006. 3 See http://www.lutherblissett.net/. 4 Not coincidentally, Q is very much concerned with issues surrounding identity and authorship, from the mysterious character ‘Q’ of the title to the name-changing main protagonist, who could be seen as a reflection of Luther Blissett themselves as an identity-shifting entity that arranges protests and hoaxes, and engages with the subversive potential of the printing press. 7 This, combined with their refusal to appear on television or have their photographs taken, is part of Wu Ming’s aim to undermine the figure of the author, both as a celebrated personality and as an isolated genius working alone, calling into question the modern author-function, as theorised by Foucault (2003). This is reinforced by the fact that Wu Ming embrace ‘copyleft’ principles,5 making their texts freely available for download online, as well as publishing