Abstract
This chapter examines letters to the cultural advice columns of Italy’s Nobel Prize winning poet Salvatore Quasimodo and controversial filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in illustrated news magazines. Readers wrote to these intellectual celebrities with questions about art and literature, modern life and the social and political changes that were felt to be underway. The letters reflect generational change through the special attention given to young letter writers and students. Barron argues that this opportunity for magazine readers to ‘converse’ with intellectuals was a distinct feature of Italian magazines that owed much to the popular relationship advice columns of women’s magazines.
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References
Primary Sources
Magazines
Bolero Film
Bolero Teletutto
Epoca
Le Ore
Tempo
Vie Nuove
Film
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Archival
DOXA Istituto per le Ricerche Statistiche e l’Analisi dell’Opinione Pubblica and SIRM Società Italiana Ricerche di Mercato, Indagine nazionale sui lettori dei quotidiani e dei periodici sui telespettatori, radioascoltatori e cinespettatori Confidential Market Research for Utenti Pubblicità Associati (Unpublished, 1958), SIPRA archive.
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Barron, E. (2018). Dear Intellectual: The Cultural Advice Columns. In: Popular High Culture in Italian Media, 1950–1970. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90963-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90963-9_3
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