No other European country experienced the disruption of political and everyday life suffered by Italy in the so-called ‘years of lead’ (1969-c.1983), when there were more than 12,000 incidents of terrorist violence. This experience affected all aspects of Italian cultural life, shaping political, judicial and everyday language as well as artistic representation of every kind. In this innovative and broad-ranging study, experts from the fields of philosophy, history, media, law, cinema, theatre and literary studies trace how the experience and legacies of terrorism have determined the form and content of Italian cultural production and shaped the country’s way of thinking about such events?
Pierpaolo Antonello is senior lecturer in Italian at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College. Alan O’Leary is lecturer in Italian in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds.
Reviews:
‘This is a thought-provoking collection that requires the reader to engage with representations and form as critical sites of historical understanding.’ — Derek Duncan, Modern Language Review 106.3, 2011, 889-90 (full text online)
‘For many, the murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978 by the BR and the various neofascist bombings have become myths or legendary occurrences ones fraught with profound meaning for the human condition. Even some of the former militants and terrorists — the perpetrators, in other words — have participated in these productions (Moro’s killers, for example). In fact, one cannot help be left with the impression that the artists and the ex-militants are really talking to each other.’ — Leonard Weinberg, Journal of Modern History 84.3 (September 2012), 752-54
‘This broad-ranging collection of fourteen essays is innovative in offering an extremely rich and multi-faceted portrait of this complex topic... makes a real contribution to show how terrorist brutality was expressed, encoded and schematized by the people involved in these dramatic events even before the violent actions became the object of rhetorical analysis.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 48.4 (October 2012), 490
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Bibliography entry:
Antonello, Pierpaolo, and Alan O'Leary (eds), Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy 1969-2009, Italian Perspectives, 18 (Legenda, 2009)
First footnote reference:35Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy 1969-2009, ed. by Pierpaolo Antonello and Alan O'Leary, Italian Perspectives, 18 (Legenda, 2009), p. 21.
Subsequent footnote reference:37 Antonello and O'Leary, p. 47.
Antonello, Pierpaolo, and Alan O'Leary (eds). 2009. Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy 1969-2009, Italian Perspectives, 18 (Legenda)
Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Antonello and O'Leary 2009: 21).
Example footnote reference:35 Antonello and O'Leary 2009: 21.
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