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After the Apocalypse: Repression and Resistance

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Italian Science Fiction

Part of the book series: Studies in Global Science Fiction ((SGSF))

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Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to analyze five Italian apocalyptic films produced in the 1960s, and to explore how they have reflected Italy’s ongoing social and economic changes. Ugo Gregoretti’s Omicron (1963) speaks about the fear of the Americanization of Italy’s culture, and the effect of alienation in a consumerist society. Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow’s L’ultimo uomo della Terra captures a transitional moment, and Italy’s ambiguous status as both a colonizing and neocolonial country with strong political and economic ties to the United States. Liliana Cavani’s I cannibali (1970) expresses the fear of authoritarianism and political terrorism after the civil rights protest of 1968.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an accurate comparison of the different critical investigations of Invasion of the Body Snatchers , see Grant (2010).

  2. 2.

    The EUR neighborhood has been employed as the setting of a large number of movies. See, for instance, Delli Colli (2008).

  3. 3.

    On the changes in Italian family in the twentieth century, see Calanca (2004). On the history of Italy in the mid-1960s, see Crainz (1996: 218–42).

  4. 4.

    See Focardi (2013).

  5. 5.

    The story is set in Padua and tells the story of Beatrice Rappacini, a woman who is poisonous to everything that she touches. Her father, the scientist Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini, had accidentally turned her into a monster by trying to make her immune to a poisonous plant.

  6. 6.

    A heartfelt thanks goes to Cecilia Brioni for sharing insights about the representation of capelloni in popular press in the 1960s, which will be part of her forthcoming article “Shorn Capelloni: Hair and Young Masculinities in Italian Popular Media, 1965–67.”

  7. 7.

    On the representation of the myth in Pasolini’s work, see Fusilli (2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Simone Brioni

  2. Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France

    Daniele Comberiati

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  1. Simone Brioni
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Brioni, S., Comberiati, D. (2019). After the Apocalypse: Repression and Resistance. In: Italian Science Fiction. Studies in Global Science Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19326-3_4

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