Italian Science Fiction

This book explores Italian science fiction from 1861, the year of Italy's unification, to the present day, focusing on how this genre helped shape notions of Otherness and Normalness. In particular, Italian Science Fiction draws upon critical race studies, postcolonial theory, and feminist studies to explore how migration, colonialism, multiculturalism, and racism have been represented in genre film and literature. Topics include the role of science fiction in constructing a national identity; the representation and self-representation of alien immigrants in Italy; the creation of internal Others, such as southerners and Roma; the intersections of gender and race discrimination; and Italian science fiction's transnational dialogue with foreign science fiction. This book reveals that though it is arguably a minor genre in Italy, science fiction offers an innovative interpretive angle for rethinking Italian history and imagining future change in Italian society.

Contributes to film studies, the study of women writers, critical race theory, comics studies, and adaptation studies Studies memory of colonialism in Italian popular culture Examines the links between migration, colonialism, racism, and multiculturalism in Italian Science Fiction

Auteur
Simone Brioni is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Stony Brook University, USA. His research focuses on migration studies and postcolonial theory with a particular emphasis on contemporary Italian culture.

Daniele Comberiati is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Italian Studies at the University Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, France. His research fields include migration literature, postcolonial studies, comics and graphic novels, and eighteenth-century travel literature.

Texte du rabat

This book explores Italian science fiction from 1861, the year of Italy s unification, to the present day, focusing on how this genre helped shape notions of Otherness and Normalness. In particular, Italian Science Fiction draws upon critical race studies, postcolonial theory, and feminist studies to explore how migration, colonialism, multiculturalism, and racism have been represented in genre film and literature. Topics include the role of science fiction in constructing a national identity; the representation and self-representation of alien immigrants in Italy; the creation of internal Others, such as southerners and Roma; the intersections of gender and race discrimination; and Italian science fiction s transnational dialogue with foreign science fiction. This book reveals that though it is arguably a minor genre in Italy, science fiction offers an innovative interpretive angle for rethinking Italian history and imagining future change in Italian society.

Résumé

"Brioni and Comberiati's text is of great interest to both the scholar and the general reader who has more than a passing interest in Italian history and culture, postcolonial studies, and the effective use of science fiction to explore and uncover the important social and political issues to yield insights. ... The book itself is well-grounded in postcolonial theory and by the end readers have seen, as promised ... and are well-equipped to apply what was learned to other subjects." (Sean Memolo, SFRA Review, Vol. 51 (3), 2021)

"The strength of Brioni and Comberiati's work is that it clarifies how the genre of science fiction is rooted in Italian culture, particularly in Italian cinema and literature. In addition, their analysis presents an in-depth reading of how Italian science fiction is deeply connected to identity politics, and therefore reflects the historical and political changes that Italy endured as a nation." (Elisabetta Carraro, Quaderni d'italianistica, Vol. 40 (2), 2019)

Contenu

1. The Other in Italian Science Fiction.- 2. The Age of Exploration and the Creation of a National Identity.- 3. Futurism and Fascist Science Fiction.- 4. After the Apocalypse: Hybridity and Civil Rights.- 5. The Internal Other: Representing Roma.- 6. Aliens in a Country of Immigration.- 7. Dystopic Worlds and the Fear of Multiculturalism.- 7. The Questione Settentrionale: Reconfiguring Separatism.- 9. Future Pasts: Revisiting the Colonial Legacy in Alternate History Novels.- 10. Afterword: A Genre Across Cultures.