In 1994, the Association for the Student of Modern Italy (ASMI) organised a
conference around the theme of the ‘Italian crisis’. Silvio Berlusconi had just been elected as
Prime Minister and the country was in dire economic straits. The political system was in
tatters after the tangentopoli scandals. The crisis was analysed from a political, cultural,
historical and social viewpoints in a conference that was extremely well attended and led to
fascinating discussions after every paper.
The papers from the conference were then collected and published in the first issue of
the journal Modern Italy.
Now, twenty years on, ASMI revisits the Italian crisis through a major two-day
international conference which looks at the Italian crisis in terms of politics, economics,
culture, the media, cinema and literature - with papers on Silvio Berlusconi, Matteo Renzi,
Beppe Grillo and his movement, the Italian left, the crisis of masculinity, memory and
fascism and many other areas.
Over forty speakers will give talks during the conference, which will be held in the
beautiful surroundings of the Italian Institute in central London. This is an opportunity to
discuss and debate themes linked to the ongoing idea of an Italian crisis, and to meet scholars
and others interested in Italy and working on contemporary Italian themes. Major keynote
papers will be given by the leading historian of contemporary Italy, Paul Ginsborg (who also
spoke in the 1994 conference) and one of the leading Italian economists, Tito Boeri.
Everyone is welcome to attend - you can register at this site or on the day.
http://asmi.org.uk/conferences/view/asmi-conference-2014
PAUL GINSBORG WILL BE SPEAKING AT 11AM ON FRIDAY 21 NOVEMBER,
TITO BOERI AT 2:30PM ON THE SAME DAY.
The Italian Crisis: Twenty years on.
21-22 November 2014.
The Italian Cultural Institute, 39 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8NX
Conference Organisers:
John Foot, University of Bristol, j.foot@bristol.ac.uk
Gianluca Fantoni, Nottingham Trent University, gianluca.fantoni@ntu.ac.uk
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Conference Programme
Friday 21 November
9:30 – 10:45 Registration
10:45 – 11.00 Welcome and opening remarks by John Foot and Caterina Cardona
11:00 – 12:00 Keynote speaker. Paul Ginsborg ‘Holding on: the Italian Republic, 19942014’. Chair John Foot
12:00 – 1:00 Parallel Session I
Postcards from the Italian Crisis – Chair Martin J. Bull
Elena Borelli - City University of New York
Crisi as decadence in Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Bellezza.
Paolo Carusi - Università degli Studi Roma Tre
La crisi della “prima repubblica” nelle parole della canzone d’autore italiana. (IT)*
Of Money and Factories: The Roots of the Economic Crisis – Chair Stuart Oglethorpe
Stefano Adamo – University of Banja Luka
The crisis of the Italian textile industry in the literary works of Edoardo Nesi: a mix of nostalgia
and self-complacency.
Andrea Guiso - Università La Sapienza di Roma
La politica e il Sistema bancario tra Prima e Seconda Repubblica.
1:00 – 2:30 Lunch
2:30 – 3:30 Keynote speaker. Tito Boeri ‘The Big Chill: The Italian Economy and the
Crisis’. Chair John Foot
3:30 – 4:00 Coffee Break
4:00 – 5:30 Parallel Session II
The Crisis of the Italian Political System (1) - Chair Stephen Gundle
Michelangelo Vercesi - Leuphana University Lüneburg
Twenty Years On: Failures and Successes of Party Institutionalisation.
Massimo Piermattei - Università della Tuscia
The “EU factor” in the Italian crisis of 1994.
Bruno Anili - Cadence Partners.
In Monti We Trust(ed). The (Undemocratic?) Appeal of Technocratic Neoliberalism in Italy.
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Narratives and Counternarratives in the Second Republic - Chair Gianluca Fantoni
Giulia Bassi – Università di Trieste – University of Reading
Introiezione e ri-proiezione del paradigma della crisi. Alcune considerazioni sulla storiografia
sul partito comunista italiano. (IT)*
Michelangela Di Giacomo and Novella di Nunzio - Università di Siena
Trent'anni dopo: l'ultimo PCI tra azione e narrazione (IT)*
Fabrizio Coticchia - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa
An alternative view: Counter-narratives, Italian public opinion and military operations abroad.
The Crisis of the Italian Left – Chair Philip Cooke
Lilia Giugni – University of Cambridge
The Italian left: an ideational crisis?
Nicola Degli Esposti – University of Leiden
A Normal Country: Italian Post-Communists and the Challenge of Government.
Emanuel Rota - University of Illinois
Between Berlusconi and Europe: the Crisis of the Italian Left at the end of the
Cold War.
5:30 - 6:30 ASMI AGM meeting
7:30 Conference Dinner
Saturday 22
9:30 – 10:30 Registration
10:30 – 12:00 Parallel Session III
Leadership between old and new models - Chair Ruth Glynn
Massimo Cerulo - Università di Torino
Uomini capaci di vibrare. Politica e lavoro emozionale in Berlusconi, Renzi e Grillo: tra
costruzione della leadership e forme di antipolitica. (IT)*
Paolo Campolonghi – New York University
‘I Would Prefer Not To’: Beppe Grillo’s M5S against the Establishment.
Catherine O'Rawe - Bristol University
Il corpo del capo: Berlusconi, Crisis, Masculinity.
Electoral defeats in national and local contexts – Chair Mark Donovan
Paolo Chiocchetti - King’s College London
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The radical left in the Italian crisis, 1991-2014.
Enrico Mannari - Fondazione Memorie Cooperative (Grosseto)
Il caso Livorno: la "subcultura rossa" tra declino e trasformazione. (IT)*
Jacopo Perazzoli – Università degli Studi del Piemonte orientale
Where it began, it starts to end: The Way-Out from «Berlusconism» through the 2011 Milan
Local Elections.
Picturing and depicting the Crisis – Chair Penny Morris
Kate Willman - University of Warwick
De Cataldo’s Nelle mani giuste and the New Italian Epic’s Approach to the Italian Crisis.
Francesco Chianese - Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale
Scrittori senza padre, scrittori senza patria: l’evoluzione del commitment intellettuale dal
Pasolini corsaro al Resistere non serve a niente di Walter Siti. (IT)*
Alessandro Valenzisi – University of Strathclyde
Black Crows, Intellectuals and Dandies: the Italian Crisis through the Lens of Cinema.
12:00 – 1:00 Parallel Session IV
Italian Curses: Corruption and the Mafia – Chair Christopher Duggan
Felia Allum – University of Bath
Italy, politics and mafia twenty years after tangentopoli…
Giuseppe Serrantino – Middlesex University London
Mapping the ‘Italian Crisis’ 1992-94: Corruption and Political system in Catania. Crisis,
Resistance and Restoration.
Anti-Politics in Historical Perspective – Chair Mark Seymour
George Newth - University of Reading
The rise of anti-politics and the evolution of regionalism in Piedmont and Padania: La
Permanente, Il MARP and The Lega Nord.
Daniela R. Piccio - Leiden University
Are political parties all the same? An analysis of the political finance law proposals (19482014).
1:00 – 2:30 Lunch
2:30 – 3:30 Session V
The Crisis of the Italian Political System (2) Chair Stephen Gundle
Martin J. Bull - University of Salford
The Crisis of Italian Institutions: Twenty Years On.
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Mark Donovan - Cardiff University
The Second Republic: a new party system, now itself in crisis.
The burden of the Past. Memories and Reassessment. Chair Sofia Serenelli
Nick Carter - Australian Catholic University Sydney
Presente! Fascist Art in Contemporary Italy.
Giacomo Lichtner - Victoria University of Wellington
Memory Compromises and Compromised Memories: Rewriting WWII in Contemporary
Italian Film.
3:30 – 4:00 Coffee Break
4:00 – 5:30 Parallel Session VI
Liminal identities and collectives fears - Chair John Foot
Gianni Silei – Università di Siena
Italian fear: the roots of the Italian crisis
Franco Baldasso - New York University
A Mirror for Italy: Intellectuals in Trieste Facing the Collapse of Yugoslavia.
Louise Zamparutti - University of Wisconsin
Italy's Giorno del ricordo: creating a counterpublic identity in the Second Republic.
Theatre and Television as mirrors of the Crisis – Chair Gianluca Fantoni
Armando Rotondi - Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale
The ‘theatralization’ of the crisis in the dialectic between Dario Fo, Beppe Grillo and
Gianroberto Casaleggio.
Vanessa Roghi – Università La Sapienza Roma
Television iconography and clichés.
Daniele Salerno – Università di Bologna
The (Televised) Birth of ‘Grillismo’.
*(IT): The paper will be in Italian.
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