Broken time, fragmented space : a cultural map for postwar Italy / Anna Maria Torriglia.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Examines how the artists and intellectuals of post-war Italy dealt with the 'shameful' heritage of their fascist upbringing and education by trying to craft a new cultural identity for themselves and the country.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Torriglia (Univ. of California in Padua) has produced a fascinating study that offers valuable insights into postwar Italy and prompts readers to search out the literature and films that constitute the subject of her analysis: works by authors such as Banti, Ortese, and Pavese and filmmakers such as Pratolini and Rossellini. Torriglia maps four areas. First, cultural and intellectual continuities between the fascist and postwar eras provoked intergenerational tension and scrutiny to determine responsibility for and consequences of fascism. Second, female authors and male filmmakers created female characters to develop a "female genealogy" separate from patriarchal structures and to reevaluate women's roles in postwar society. The interpretation of women's identity in Banti's Artemisia deserves special praise. Third, "America" was transformed from a prewar symbol of utopian modernism to a too-familiar presence after 1943. Finally, literary and cinematic explorations of Italy's regional and linguistic variety fostered Italian self-awareness and problematized regional and cultural stereotypes. This study will be valued by literature and film scholars and others interested in gender, history and memory, and postfascist recovery. Appropriate for graduate students and research libraries. G. F. Schroeder St. John's University, Minnesota