Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T12:39:48.280Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new dawn on the past: rethinking the ‘years of lead’ through a female-centred cinematic narrative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2017

Susanna Scarparo
Susanna Scarparo*
Affiliation:
School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Australia
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Through a discussion of Susanna Nichiarelli’s La scoperta dell’alba (The Discovery of Dawn, 2012), the article contends that historical films that do not centre their narratives around the homosocial and heterosexual male-quest, even if employing a conventional cinematic style, allow us to rethink national histories, trauma and contested memories, as they shift the focus to female subjectivities that are often marginalised in Italian historical films. Specifically, the discussion of Nichiarelli’s La scoperta dell’alba focuses on the complex role of victims in interpreting the legacy of the anni di piombo and on the processes through which the interplay between mourning and melancholia fosters the emotional agency that is necessary for dealing constructively with the experience of loss.

Italian summary

Attraverso l’analisi del film La scoperta dell’alba (2012) di Susanna Nichiarelli, questo articolo sostiene che i film che narrano del passato che non si focalizzano su racconti centrati sulla ricerca maschile del se, con impronta omosociale e eterosessuale, qualora utilizzino stili cinematografici convenzionali, ci permettono di ripensare storie nazionali, trauma e memorie contestate, in quanto spostano l’attenzione verso le soggettivitá femminili che sono spesso marginalizzate nei film italiani. In particolare, la discussione del film di Nichiarelli si concentra sulla complessitá del ruolo delle vittime nell’interpretare l’ereditá degli anni di piombo, e sui processi attraverso i quali l’interazione tra lutto e melancolia favoriscono la partecipazione emotiva necessaria per affrontare in modo costruttivo l’esperienza di perdita.

Keywords

Nichiarelliwomen’s cinemaanni di piombo (‘years of lead’)terrorism, Italian historical filmfemale-centric narratives
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 22 , Special Issue 2: History and Memory in Italian Cinema , May 2017 , pp. 183 - 196
Copyright
© 2017 Association for the Study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Films Google Scholar
Buongiorno, notte. Dir. Marco Bellocchio. 2003. Palace Films, 2009. DVD.Google Scholar
Colpire al cuore. Dir. Gianni Amelio. 1983. Ripley’s Home Video, 2004. DVD.Google Scholar
Donne armate. Dir. Sergio Corbucci. 1991. Rai Cinema- 01 Distribution, 2010. DVD.Google Scholar
La meglio gioventù. Dir. Marco Tullio Giordana. 2003. 01 Home Entertainment, 2003. DVD.Google Scholar
La scoperta dell’alba. Dir. Susanna Nichiarelli. 2012. Fandango, 2012. DVD.Google Scholar
Mio fratello è figlio unico. Dir. Daniele Luchetti. 2007. Warner Home Video, 2007. DVD.Google Scholar
Novecento. Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci. 1976. CDE, 2006. DVD.Google Scholar
Romanzo criminale. Dir. Michele Placido. 2005. Einaudi, 2005. DVD.Google Scholar
Tre fratelli. Dir. Francesco Rosi. 1981. Arrow Films, 2016. DVD.Google Scholar
Segreti segreti. Dir. Giuseppe Bertolucci. 1984. Istituto Luce, 2005. DVD.Google Scholar

Texts

Antonello, P., and O’Leary, A., eds. 2009. Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy 1969–2009. London: Legenda.Google Scholar
Benjamin, W. 1969. Illuminations. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Buonanno, M. 2012. La fiction italiana. Rome-Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Burucúa, C. 2009. Confronting the ‘Dirty War’ in Argentine Cinema, 1983–1993: Memory and Gender in Historical Representations. Woodbridge: Tamesis.Google Scholar
Butler, J. 2003. “Afterword: After Loss, What Then?” In Loss: The Politics of Mourning, edited by D. Eng, and D. Kazajian, 467–473. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dalle Vacche, A. 1992. The Body in the Mirror: Shapes of History in Italian Cinema. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Eng, D., and Kazajian., D. 2003. “Introduction: Mourning Remains.” In Loss: The Politics of Mourning, edited by D. Eng, and D. Kazajian, 1–25. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Elsaesser, T. 1989. New German Cinema: A History. Basingstoke: Macmillan and Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Elsaesser, T. 1996. Fassbinder’s Germany: History Identitiy Subject. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Ferber, I. 2006. “Melancholy Philosophy: Freud and Benjamin.” E-rea. Revue électronique d’études sur le monde Anglophone 4 (1). https://erea.revues.org/413 Google Scholar
Glynn, R. 2012. “Terrorism, a Female Malady.” In Terrorism, Italian Style. Representations of Political Violence in Contemporary Cinema, edited by R. Glynn, G. Lombardi, and A. O’Leary, 117–132. London: igrs books.Google Scholar
Glynn, R. 2013. “The ‘turn to the victim’ in Italian culture: victim-centred narratives of the anni di piombo .” Modern Italy 18 (4): 373–390.Google Scholar
Glynn, R. 2013. Women, Terrorism and Trauma in Italian Culture. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Glynn, R., and Lombardi., G. 2012. “Introduction: Remembering Aldo Moro.” In Remembering Aldo Moro: The Cultural Legacy of the 1978 Kidnapping and Murder, edited by R. Glynn, and G. Lombardi. London: Legenda.Google Scholar
Glynn, R., Lombardi, G., and O’Leary., A. 2012. “Introduction: Terrorism Italian Style.” In Terrorism, Italian Style. Representations of Political Violence in Contemporary Cinema, edited by R. Glynn, G. Lombardi, and A. O’Leary, 13–25. London: igrs books.Google Scholar
Hajek, A. 2014. “Coming to Terms with Terrorism. Sergio Corbucci’s Donne armate and the Trauma of the Anni Di Piombo.” The Italianist 34 (2): 219–234.Google Scholar
Hanssen, B. 1999. “Portrait of Melancholy (Benjamin, Warburg, Panofsky).” MLN 114 (5): 991–1013.Google Scholar
Luciano, B., and Scarparo., S. 2013. Reframing Italy: New Trends in Italian Women’s Filmmaking. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press.Google Scholar
O’Leary, A. 2011. Tragedia all’italiana:Italian Cinema and Italian Terrorisms 1970–2010. Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
O’Rawe, C. 2014. Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Sellier, G. 2010. “Gender Studies and Film Studies in France: Steps Forward and Back.” Diogenes 225:103–112.Google Scholar
Tardi, R. 2006. “Altrin in casa? Violenza politica e rapporti tra genitori e figli.” In Transitions: prospettive di studio sulle trasformazioni letterarie e linguistiche nella cultura italiana, edited by D. Brancato, K.B. Reynolds, P. Chirumbolo, and F. Calabrese, 257–270. Florence: Cadmo.Google Scholar
Wood, M. 2005. Italian Cinema. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar