Italian Industrial Literature and Film: Perspectives on the Representation of Postwar Labor

570 Pages·2021·12.832 MB·English

by  Carlo Baghetti, Jim Carter, Lorenzo Marmo

P A N O R A M AS • I T A L I A N M O D E R N I T I E S

Italian

Industrial

Literature

and Film

Perspectives

on

the Representation

of Postwar

Labor

Edited by

Carlo Baghetti,

Jim Carter and
Lorenzo Marmo
PETER LANG
Italian Industrial Literature and Film
PA N O R A M A S • ITALIAN MODERNITIES
VOL. 2
Edited by
Pierpaolo Antonello and Robert Gordon,
University of Cambridge
PETER LANG
Oxford Bern Berlin Bruxelles New York Wien
• • • • •
Italian
Industrial
Literature
and Film
Perspectives on the
Representation
of
Postwar Labor
Edited by
Carlo Baghetti, Jim Carter
and Lorenzo Marmo
PETER LANG
Oxford Bern Berlin Bruxelles New York Wien
• • • • •
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National bibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baghetti, Carlo, 1987- editor of compilation. | Carter, Jim, 1990-
editor of compilation. | Marmo, Lorenzo, editor of compilation.
Title: Italian industrial literature and film : perspectives on the
representation of postwar labor / Carlo Baghetti, Jim Carter, Lorenzo
Marmo, (eds.)
Description: Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, 2021. | Series: Panoramas,
2297-8410 ; volume 2 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020029531 (print) | LCCN 2020029532 (ebook) | ISBN
9781788745987 (paperback) | ISBN 9781788745994 (ebook) | ISBN
9781788746007 (epub) | ISBN 9781788746014 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Italian literature--20th century--History and criticism. |
Labor in literature. | Motion pictures--Italy--History. | Labor in
motion pictures.
Classification: LCC PQ4088 .I84 2021 (print) | LCC PQ4088 (ebook) | DDC
850.9/3553--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029531
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029532
Cover image: Workers in Fiat factories, Turin, Italy. Originally published in Epoca, 16 February
1961, year XII, no. 69, page 32. In the public domain.
Cover design by Peter Lang Ltd.
ISSN PAN: 2297-8410 / SIMIC: 1662-9108
ISBN 978-1-78874-598-7 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78874-599-4 (eBook)
ISBN 978-1-78874-600-7 (ePub) • ISBN 978-1-78874-601-4 (mobi)
© Peter Lang Group AG 2021
Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers,
52 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, United Kingdom
[email protected], www.peterlang.com
Carlo Baghetti, Jim Carter and Lorenzo Marmo have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this Work.
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
Contents

List of Figures xi
Carlo Baghetti, Jim Carter and Lorenzo Marmo
Italian Industrial Literature and Film: A Brief Introduction 1
Part I – History, Method, Legacy 23
Claudio Panella
1 Industrial Labor in Italian Literature and Film before Neorealism 25
Lorenzo Marmo
2 Spaces and Bodies of Industrial Labor in Italian Cinema,
1945– 1975 41
Paola Bonifazio
3 A Short History of Sponsored Film in Italy 59
Jim Carter
4 For a New Humanism: Literary and Cultural Debate in Il
Menabò di letteratura 77
Emanuele Zinato
5 The Factory as Cultural Center 91
Sergio Ferrarese
6 Alienation and Class Struggle in Italian Literature 105
vi Contents
Alessandra Diazzi
7 Care or Control? Psychology and Psychoanalysis in Italian
Factories 119
Andrea Sartori
8 Class Struggle and Its Metamorphoses: A Path through
Postwar Italian Political Thought 137
Ambra Zorat
9 Women and/ in the Factory 151
Piergiorgio Mori
10 Ecocritical Approaches to Factory Life 165
Paolo Chirumbolo
11 The City, the Countryside and the ‘Great Transformation’ in
Italian Industrial Literature 177
Francesca Cantore and Andrea Minuz
12 Against Working- Class Idols: Thieves, Vitelloni, Hunks and
the Dolce Vita in 1950s Italian Cinema 193
Carlo Baghetti
13 Contemporary Returns to Questions of Industry and Labor 207
Malvina Giordana
14 Italian Cinema in the Twenty- First Century: Representing
the Precarious Subject 219
Contents vii
Part II – Italian Industrial Literature 237
Ugo Fracassa
15 Luigi Davì: The Caliber of a Working- Class Writer 239
Fabrizio di Maio
16 Mechanization and Exploitation in Ottiero Ottieri: Tempi
stretti (1957) and Donnarumma all’assalto (1959) 251
Tiziano Toracca
17 Giovanni Arpino’s Industrial Novels: Gli anni del giudizio
(1958) and Una nuvola d’ira (1962) 261
Silvia Cavalli
18 Industrial Absurdities and Utopia in Giancarlo Buzzi’s Il
senatore (1958) and L’amore mio italiano (1963) 273
Giovanni Capecchi
19 Failure and Solitude in the Boom Years: The Vigevano
Stories of Lucio Mastronardi 283
Mark Pietralunga
20 Luciano Bianciardi and the New Frenetic Era of Labor 295
Daniele Fioretti
21 Writing the Factory: Paolo Volponi’s Industrial Novels 307
Ricciarda Ricorda
22 Reversing the Coming- of- Age Story in Industrial Society: Il
padrone (1965) by Goffredo Parise 315
viii Contents
Pasquale Verdicchio
23 When Nothing Meets the Needs of Everything: Nanni
Balestrini’s Vogliamo tutto (1971) 327
Pierpaolo Antonello
24 La chiave a stella (1978): Labor sub specie Faussone 337
Erica Bellia
25 Tommaso Di Ciaula’s Tuta blu (1978): The Voice and Body
of the Working Class 349
Part III – Italian Industrial Film 359
Paola D’Amora
26 “Casa e lavoro”: Southern Labor and the Housing Problem
in Eduardo De Filippo’s Napoletani a Milano (1953) 361
Anna Masecchia
27 Giovanna (1955) and the Others: Factory Women in
Reconstruction Italy 371
Federico Vitella
28 Love Is Not a Many Splendored Thing: Pietro Germi’s
L’uomo di paglia (1958) 381
Valerio Coladonato and Dalila Missero
29 Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960): Patterns of Labor, Space and
Integration 391
Veronica Pravadelli
30 Il posto (1961) and the Gender of Italian Modernity 401
Contents ix
Lucia Cardone
31 Earth and Water: The Market of Bodies in La ragazza in
vetrina (1961) 415
Andrea Mariani
32 The Working Class in Post- Neorealist Italian
Cinema: Times and Politics of Mario Monicelli’s I compagni
(1963) 427
Eleonora Lima
33 The Factory as a Work of Art and an Alienating Force in
Michelangelo Antonioni’s Deserto rosso (1964) 439
Luca Peretti
34 Italiani nel mondo (1965): The Glorification of Italian Labor
Abroad 449
Louis Bayman
35 A Spanner in the Works: Elio Petri from Il maestro di
Vigevano (1963) to La classe operaia va in paradiso (1971) 459
Ilaria A. De Pascalis
36 The Seduction of a Worker in Lina Wertmüller’s Mimì
metallurgico ferito nell’onore (1972) 469
Mattia Lento
37 Migration, Industry and Class Struggle in Trevico-
Torino: Viaggio nel Fiat- Nam (1973) 479
Appendix: Italian Industrial Literature and Film – A Tentative
Canon 491