Fantascienza Italiana - by Giulia Iannuzzi

THE ITALIAN (Milky)WAY TO SCIENCE FICTION Abstract of the paper read at the 2013 Global Science Fiction" symposium at Wellesley College", Boston, USA. by Jadel Andreetto Science Fiction is translated with the word “Fantascienza” a fusion of science and fantasy. This gap between definitions pigeonholed this literary genre with the status of children's or pulp fiction. Italy, until the end of World War II, was a rural country, literature was produced almost exclusively within the cultured ruling class and was almost always oriented towards introspective fiction or realism. After the war country's reconstruction Italy became an industrial power and the literature began to recount the horrors of war and the partisan resistance, choosing, as did cinema, a (neo)realist approach. The progressive politicization of the literary salons and the new cultural elite decreed the ultimate death of Fantascienza. The only Science Fiction "allowed" was the foreign one, which was, however, still considered a minor genre. After the economic boom, with the escalation of the Cold War and the Years of Lead, the “victory” of existentialism over idealism, Italian literature found a new way to express the issues related to the "uncanny" through the “purely fantastic,” but with few concessions to Sci-Fi. We have to wait the arrival of the middle nineties to separate Fantascienza from the "suspicion" that it was only pulp fiction. But it was only with the arrival of Valerio Evangelisti that Italian Sci-Fi and Fantasy begins to find its way. From Evangelisti on many writers have gone in search of a Sci-Fi fiction that eschews the duty to be Sci-Fi, a literary genre able to chart an unexplored course, an Italian way to Sci-Fi, Fantasy and New Weird, until the publishing industry destroy it all. The Italian (Milky)Way to Science Fiction, after a historical and critical introduction will focus on those interesting days of raise and fall.

Science Fiction Studies #126 / Vol.42.2 (July 2015), 2015

Science Fiction Studies #126 / Vol. 42.2 (2015), 2015

The Last Avant-Garde. Alternative and anti-establishment reviews (1970-1979) , 2019

The seventies marked a decade of massive change in the history of Italian science fiction. Since the dramatic turn of 1968, the reputation of this “popular” form of entertainment was indeed challenged in several ways: new trends were launched, new movements characterised by a high degree of experimentation were coming forth, while the genre itself suddenly shifted from a “hard” to a “soft” approach to the relation between science and man. In this regard, brand new magazines such as Robot and Un’ambigua utopia showed both an increasing awareness of socio-political issues and an irreverent attitude towards the literary establishment of the time, paving the way for a broad range of subcultures from feminism to neo-Marxism. While other national competitors were still clinging to the glories of the “space age” (Urania, Oltre il cielo, Galassia), these magazines thus challenged the traditional vision of science fiction as a form of mild escapism from the real world, or rather as mere “distraction” from the actual problems of society. Being fascinated by the revolutionary impact of technological change on social life they wished indeed to explore a brand new era in which – as J. G. Ballard once said – the future «has already taken place».

Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 2018

A wave of translations of Anglo-American science fiction characterized the Italian publishing market during the years of the ‘economic miracle’ (1950s–1960s). Starting from an assessment of quantitative data about science fiction novels published in specialized series, the article discusses the agency of publishers and editors in shaping and marketing ideas of genre, in terms of selection of texts to be translated, adaptation through the paratextual apparatus and translation strategies. Translations in popular series were in fact characterized by a vast range of domestication and manipulation phenomena. A close reading of a number of cases reveals a complex series of motives at work behind these practices: from the adaptation to a readership younger than the original one – and/or believed by the publishers to be less culturally prepared – to economic factors, as the physical characteristics of each book were strictly standardized, and issues of cost and seriality often took precedence over artistic considerations.

2022

Conference organisers: Eleonora Lima (Trinity College Dublin); Michele Maiolani (University of Cambridge); Marco Malvestio (University of Padua / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) EVENT OVERVIEW While Primo Levi is mainly known for his painstaking and harsh books about his imprisonment in Auschwitz, he also wrote two collections of short stories that can be labelled as science fiction: 'Storie naturali' (1966) and 'Vizio di forma' (1971). A chemist by training, Levi wrote these stories at a time when science fiction was still perceived as unworthy of attention by Italian intellectuals—to the extent that 'Storie naturali' was initially published under a pseudonym. In both books, Levi uses science fiction to investigate the ethical implications of technological progress and probe its hidden and inherent flaws while adopting a tone that was only apparently light. The eerie effect reached by many of these short stories is due to a strong clash: the literary genre was considered superficial and disengaged by the vast majority of Levi’s contemporaries, and yet the writer addresses crucial existential questions in his narrations of clones, intelligent technologies, mutant animals. By drawing attention to Levi’s contributions in science fiction, this one-day conference aims to contribute to reshaping the scholarly reputation of this genre within Italian Studies and to question Levi’s perception vis-à-vis his position within the hierarchy of genres. This event brings together some of the most renowned scholars who have explored the intersections between his work and science fiction. The speakers will dialogue with early-career researchers and established Levi scholars to foster the debate on this new area of research and explore it from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The story of science fiction in Italy during the second half of the Nineteenth century is a fascinating history of intercultural relationships. The translation of the Anglo-American tra- dition has to be identified not only with that of novels and short stories, but also of publish- ing formulas, repertoires of themes, imagery, all of which were rapidly assimilated by Italian authors, who soon moved from imitation to attempts of original re-use. These phenomena can also be considered a vivid example of greater cultural and economical dynamics: the birth of a new readership in Italy during the 1950s, the new importance of American cultural importation in Italy after the Second World War and the development of a modern cultural industry in Italy. The essay presents some observations about the translation of Anglo-Amer- ican science fiction in Italy, focusing on the earlier period – the 1950s –, with examples and cases from “I Romanzi di Urania” (the most important and representative science fiction series of that time and also one for which archive documentation is available), and with brief references to later protagonists and processes. --- La storia della fantascienza anglo-americana in Italia nel secondo Novecento mostra un affa- scinante percorso di traduzione in senso culturale complesso – traduzione di formule edito- riali, di testi, di modelli letterari –, rapidamente fatti propri dagli autori italiani, che presto muoveranno dall’imitazione all’assimilazione e al riuso originale degli elementi tipici del re- pertorio di genere. Il fenomeno di traduzione culturale della fantascienza anglo-americana in Italia è d’altronde significativo di più ampi fenomeni che caratterizzano il mercato culturale italiano negli anni Cinquanta: la crescente centralità della produzione statunitense, lo svilup- po di nuovi settori di pubblico e di una moderna industria culturale. Il saggio propone una breve ricognizione delle ragioni storico-culturali del fenomeno e approfondisce il tema della traduzione negli anni Cinquanta con esempi tratti dalla più popolare e longeva pubblicazio- ne di genere italiana “I Romanzi di Urania” di Mondadori (e dalle relative carte d’archivio). In fine alcuni riferimenti sono riservati ai processi e ai protagonisti che caratterizzeranno le stagioni successive della fantascienza italiana.

Nuclear Italy An International History of Italian Nuclear Policies during the Cold War

is essay critically investigates how science fiction interacted with, and contributed to the development of a collective imagery related to nuclear energy in Italy between the 1950s and the 1970s, within a context characterized by a difficult relationship between the “two cultures”. To do this, it takes into account the theme of nuclear technologies in science fiction genre narratives, and its treatment on the part of non-genre Italian writers. An initial enthusiasm toward nuclear energy is interpreted as part of new hopes connected to an unprecedented modernization in the peninsula and a new centrality of techno-science – of which science fiction was an apt expression. e hostility toward both nuclear technologies and science fiction on the part of the Italian cultural elite during subsequent decades is read as two di erent sides of the same “malaise of modernity”.