Overview
- Considers a variety of texts, from novels to TV series and films
- Looks at how historical detective fiction mirrors contemporary concerns
- Takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining literary theory with historiographical concerns and memory studies
Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies (IIAS)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
Reviews
“With this book, Barbara Pezzotti completes a trilogy of sorts begun with The Importance of Place in Contemporary Italian Crime Fiction (2012) and continued with Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction (2014). Considering the vast production of historical detective fiction in Italy, she argues that the genre serves to consider the past from alternative perspectives from those of official historiography, and to give a voice to those on the margins of mainstream historical accounts. Pezzotti is a superb close reader, and balances an attention to the text with complex theoretical and historiographic questions such as the role of memory in shaping individual and collective identity, and individual responsibility in the face of the collective crimes of the Fascist regime.” (Luca Somigli, Professor of Italian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada)
“With this book, Pezzotti further cements her reputation as the foremost expert on the intersection of place, history,and national identity in Italian crime fiction. Essential reading.” (Robert Rushing, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA and author of “Resisting Arrest: Detective Fiction & Popular Culture”)
“Evincing deep familiarity with her material, Pezzotti shows in this ambitious study how recent novels, films, and television series dealing with the Italian past mediate ideological positions from the coeval political culture.” (Alan O’Leary, Associate Professor of Italian, University of Leeds, UK and author of “Tragedia all’italiana: Italian Cinema and Italian Terrorisms, 1970-2010”)
“Pezzotti’s fine book presents an authoritative overview of recent Italian crime fiction. Lucidly written and compellingly interdisciplinary, this book emphasises the capacity of crime fiction to fill in the gaps left by historians, and the power and relevance of cultural responses to a contested and difficult past.” (Philip Cooke, Professor of Italian History and Culture, University of Strathclyde, UK and author of “The Legacy of the Italian Resistance”)
"Pezzotti's fascinating study shows how crime fiction has been used to probe and question Italy's historical open wounds and unresolved legacies. The Risorgimento, Fascism and the war, and the anni di piombo are each carefully illuminated in turn through the lens and intelligent eye of the contemporary giallo." (Robert S. C Gordon, Serena Professor of Italian, University of Cambridge, UK and author of “The Holocaust in Italian Culture, 1944-2010”)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Barbara Pezzotti is an Honorary Research Associate of the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS), Australia. She received her PhD from Victoria University, New Zealand and is the author of The Importance of Place in Contemporary Italian Crime Fiction: A Bloody Journey (2012) and Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction: An Historical Overview (2014).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Investigating Italy's Past through Historical Crime Fiction, Films, and TV Series
Book Subtitle: Murder in the Age of Chaos
Authors: Barbara Pezzotti
Series Title: Italian and Italian American Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94908-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-60310-4Published: 12 September 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-95884-9Published: 14 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-1-349-94908-3Published: 11 September 2016
Series ISSN: 2635-2931
Series E-ISSN: 2635-294X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VII, 270
Topics: European Literature, European Cinema and TV, Twentieth-Century Literature