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.
Table of Content
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.
About the author
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.
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