Beyond the Piazza ― Public and Private Spaces in Modern Italian Culture

The piazza has long been a central element of Italian public space as the site of mass politics, markets, religious festivals, and fairs, as well as the space in which the private meets the public. As such, it has a key role to play in this collection exploring the role of private and public spaces in 20th and early 21st century Italian culture, which also goes "beyond the piazza" by considering homes, interiors, lieux de memoire (symbols of memorial heritage), and the ways in which spatial practice and representation challenge dichotomies between public and private. In particular, editor Storchi (Italian, U. of Leicester, England) notes, the collection "pays particular attention to spaces where the notions of public and private become blurred, intersect, contaminate each other." She has organized the 12 contributed chapters into sections on: homes and the public sphere, gendered spaces and the interface between public and private, urban spaces between reality and imagination, and public spaces and private lives in relation to sites of memory. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Simona Storchi is Lecturer in Italian at the University of Leicester. She has published on Italian Modernism and the Avant-garde, the relationship between Fascism and culture, 20th century Italian literature, art criticism, periodicals, and the relationship between classicism and modernity. She co-curated the exhibition Against Mussolini. Art and the Fall of a Dictator (London, 2010).