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italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies Contemporary Representations of Organised Crime in Italy and Beyond An interdisciplinary conference dedicated to the memory of Dr. Tom Behan, a leading authority on Italian organised crime University of Kent, June 2011 Journalist: Were you impressed with Gomorrah? Dr. Tom Behan: I was, because one of the irritating things for me as someone who tries to teach students about the mafia and the Camorra is that if anyone’s got any understanding about the mafia it comes from films like The Godfather and TV shows like The Sopranos. This is a film that is very different from that. It tells an accurate picture, an awful, unglamourised picture, because, simply, that’s what it’s like. This film will give people a reality check - these criminals are not nice, romantic, unflawed people… they’re lying murderers. You’re thrown in without any explanation, and it’s so chilling because of it – but this is really how people live their lives in Naples. 04 February 2009 In 1969, Mario Puzo published what was to become an all-time bestseller, transformed into a widely acclaimed film a few years later by Francis Ford Coppola. Since The Godfather in 1972, mass audiences in the United States have been bombarded with a succession of novels, films and ultimately TV series that made of the figure of the Mafia boss a distinctive and recurrent character in American popular culture. As Caryn James claims, the recent huge success of the Sopranos TV series provides with a clear example of how ‘feeling inside a mafia family has become [in the United States] a cultural touchstone’. According to Robin Pickering-Iazzi, because of the wide-ranging circulation of American cultural products, this ‘viewing [of] mafiosi exclusively through the lens of American novels and films contributes to the tendency to take popular images of the mafia and the criminal association that bear the same name and operates in Italian territory for one and the same thing’. She goes on to observe how such a tendency ‘encourages the inclination to collapse crucial distinctions between images of the Mafia as produced by the American cultural imagination and the various perceptions and meanings of it in Italian culture’. The aim of this conference is to scrutinise contemporary representations of organised crime in literature and cinema, with a focus on Italian and Hollywoodian production, possibly stimulating a comparison of the two. We would like to encompass a variety of approaches (historical, sociological, theoretical, journalistic) while at the same time trying to ascertain the distinctive cultural practices that define Hollywood and Italian cinematography dealing with this topic. We would welcome proposals that: · Discuss the idea that while Hollywood films ‘tend to appeal to American audiences’ sympathies, in part by virtue of the insistent justification of the characters’ criminal acts’, Italian cinema and literature exploring the subject has so far adopted a more socially/politically-committed approach (e.g. work by the Sicilian author Leonardo Sciascia or the Neapolitan director Francesco Rosi, also known as the ‘poet of civic courage’); · Analyse documentary-style representations of organised crime (e.g. the 2001 I cento passi by Marco Tullio Giordana, Marco Amenta’s 2009 La siciliana ribelle – based on his 1998 documentary Diario di una siciliana ribelle –, or the 1995 Hollywoodian Donnie Brasco by Mike Newell), · Explore the case of Roberto Saviano’s book Gomorra and its 2008 cinematic adaptation by Matteo Garrone, · Scrutinise the use of Comedy in representations of organised crime (e.g. the 2004 Le conseguenze dell’amore by Paolo Sorrentino, the 1990 Roberto Benigni’s Johnny Stecchino, and the 2001 Roberta Torre’s Tano da morire). We strongly encourage the submission of proposals that widely contextualise the political and social background of the analysed film(s) and/or book(s). By so doing, we hope to answer the following questions: · What is the ultimate goal of films and/or books dealing with organised crime? Is it to entertain or to educate, or perhaps both? In other words, are these works to be considered as a mere exploitation of a social plague or – especially in Italy – do they also aim at awakening social awareness, generally unresponsive to such problems? Is it always possible to discern the line between commercial exploitation and the will to inform? · Do cinema and literature represent an effective means by which to fight organised crime? Or do they more often than not contribute to a romanticisation of the mobsters’ world, no matter how realistic these portrayals are or claim to be? · In which ways are Italian and Italian-American organised crime differently represented? · Many Hollywoodian representations of organised crime have been widely acclaimed, abroad as well as in Italy. In other specific cases, the Italian audience reacted with a stubborn rejection of the work in question (e.g. The Godfather vs. The Sopranos). What are the sociological and cultural reasons that could explain this difference of response? Neither of the above lists is exhaustive or prescriptive, and we encourage submissions that deal with films and/or books, not necessarily the ones listed in the CFP, and which explore pertinent topics that can be different from the ones herein mentioned. We are glad to welcome submissions from any disciplinary area of the humanities. Paper proposals should not exceed the 350 words, and should include a CV of the speaker. For submissions and information: [log in to unmask] ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join italian-studies YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave italian-studies to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/italian-studies.html