Italian Cityscapes
Culture and Urban Change in Comtemporary Italy

These essays examine the transformation of the Italian city from the 1950s, with particular attention to identity, migration and changes in urban culture. They focus on the industrialisation in the 1950s and 60s, and the de-industrialisation and postmodernity beginning in the 1980s.

The essays here examine the transformation of the Italian city from the 1950s to the present with particular attention to questions of identity, migration and changes in urban culture. They focus on two phases of that transformation: the years of accelerated industrialisation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the period of de-industrialisation and postmodernity beginning in the 1980s. The book shows how major demographic movements and cultural shifts threw into relief new conceptions of the city in which old boundaries had become problematic. Design, fine art, literature, youth culture, film and social history all provide focal points. The contributions bring specialist expertise to each area while the extensive illustrations give a vivid picture of the contemporary visual culture for which Italian cities are famed.

List of Illustrations, vii
List of Maps, viii
Illustration Acknowledgements, viii
Notes on Contributors, ix
Acknowledgements, xii
Signposts: An Introduction ROBERT LUMLEY AND JOHN FOOT, 1
PART I OVERVIEW, 13
1 Through the Looking-Glass: Research on the Italian City in Historical Perspective SERGIO PACE, 15
PART II MIGRATION: OLD CITIES, NEW IDENTITIES, 29
2 The Two Waves: Milan as a City of Immigration, 1955-1995 GIANFRANCO PETRILLO, 31
3 Revisiting the Coree. Self-construction, Memory and Immigration on the Milanese Periphery, 1950-2000 JOHN FOOT, 46
4 Immigration, Nationalism and Exclusionary Understandings of Place in Turin LAURA MARITANO, 61
PART III URBAN RENEWAL AND TROUBLED MODERNITY, 75
5 Architectural Utopias and La Nuova Dimensione: Turin in the 1960s MARY LOUISE LOBSINGER, 77. 6 Architecture and Modernity in Post-war Milan HALLDORA ARNARDOTTIR, 90
7 Turin after Arte Povera: A New City of Art? ROBERT LUMLEY, 100
8 Contested Claims to Public Space: The Re-imaging of Naples and the Case of Piazza Plebiscito NICHOLAS DINES, 114
PART IV URBAN FICTIONS: 'HIGH' AND 'LOW', 127
9 Calvino in Turin: Writer and Editor CLAUDIA NOCENTINI, 129
10 Crime and the City in the Detective Fiction of Giorgio Scerbanenco GIULIANA PIERI, 144
11 Imaginary Cities: Space and Identity in Italian Literature of Immigration SANDRA PONZANESI, 156
PART V GREY ZONES: CINEMA AND THE CITY, 167
12 Scenarios of Modernity: Youth Culture in 1950s Milan ENRICA CAPUSSOTTI, 169
13 Palermo in the Films of Cipri and Maresco ABELE LONGO, 185
ENDPIECE, 197
14 Adriati-citta: Notes on a Post-industrial Landscape PIPPO CIORRA, 199
Notes, 204
Index, 237.