[Commlist] cfp Transatlantic Visions: Italian Film Culture and Modernism in Post-War America

We wish to inform you about the conference we are organizing in November 
at Roma Tre about:

/Transatlantic Visions: Italian Film Culture and Modernism in Post-War 
America/.

The call can be found here: 
https://www.consultacinema.org/2022/05/24/transatlantic-visions-italian-film-cultures-and-modernisms-in-post-war-america-1949-1972/ 


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Throughout the twentieth century, Italian cinematography played an 
important role in the U.S. consumer system. Indeed, cinema has been one 
of the privileged vectors for the success of the “Made in Italy”, as 
well as an indispensable element of the material and discursive 
construction of Italian style.
To what extent, and within what limits, can we speak of an 
Italianization of U.S. art and entertainment after World War II? In how 
many ways and areas is it possible to measure the significance of this 
exchange dynamic, despite the imbalances between the two cultures and 
industries?
The conference Transatlantic Visions: Italian Film Cultures and 
Modernisms in Post-War America (1949-1972) focuses on the presence of 
Italian cinema in post-World War II U.S. cultural consumption. Its aim 
is to map the transatlantic exchanges that permitted or fostered the 
circulation and influence of Italian cinema in the United States in 
various ways during the period under consideration.
In this light, cinema is considered both as an object that circulates 
and as a vector for the diffusion of lifestyles and imaginaries; its 
impact on middle- class, working-class, and popular cultural consumption 
is also examined. Thus, the conference seeks to investigate the cultural 
forms that landed in the United States from Italy on various fronts and 
under several respects, particularly with regard to lifestyles, 
authorial practices, and entrepreneurial cultures.
From these perspectives, the conference aims to explore the general 
hypothesis of the research project Transatlantic Transfers: The Italian 
Presence in Post-war America, according to which the impact of the so- 
called Italian style—that is, a peculiarly modern and recognizable style 
associated with cultural products made in Italy—marked the cultural 
exchanges between Italy and the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s, 
establishing itself as a distinctive sign in the identity formation of 
an affluent and cosmopolitan American middle class.
Scholars are invited to submit contributions on Italian–U.S. film culture 
and industry from a variety of disciplinary and methodological 
perspectives. A few examples are offered below; these are for 
illustrative purposes only,
1	and are not meant as an exhaustive list.





→	Made in Italy and lifestyles
The impact of national productions and Italy–U.S. 
co-productions/partnerships
in the creation and reception of traditional or modern Italian 
imaginaries, structures of feeling, and lifestyles. These may be 
conveyed, for example, by the natural and urban landscape, fashion and 
design, genres, and stardom. We especially encourage contributions 
concerning the following:
-	phenomena or discourses related to the construction of Italian 
identity articulated via ethnicity, class, or gender and linked to 
Italian and Italian American cinema and stardom;
-	paths of valorization of Italian cinematic-style spread in 
high-circulation illustrated magazines and other media iconographies 
(e.g., advertising or editorial pieces);
-	explicit or implicit collaborations between cinema and Italian food 
and wine, the automotive industry, fashion, and design brands.
→	Italian style and cinema as modern art
The establishment of postwar Italian cinema in the United States in 
terms of the visual and narrative styles, imaginaries, and cultural 
practices connected with it through both distribution in U.S. art houses 
and circulation of public discourse via various media. In this regard, 
for example, we recommend proposals that investigate the following:
-	Italian arthouse cinema and its circulation practices in the U.S.; the 
American reception of the director's image as a star or artist; 
relationships between Italian film genres and arthouse cinema;
-	distribution practices within the arthouse circuit and transatlantic 
dialogues between institutions and connecting figures;
-	critical and academic discourses circulated in critical and industry 
journals and in public intellectual debate (e.g., in U.S. media, such as 
photography, radio, or television) that helped construct the imaginary 
of Italian-style cinema.
→	Transatlantic circulation networks
The involvement of Italian business culture in the production,
distribution, and reception of Italian cinema in the United States, from 
the system of the so-called Hollywood on the Tiber to commercial and 
cultural promotions by institutions, entities, and companies in 
different spheres (e.g., diplomatic, economic, media, and 
interpersonal). In this regard, for instance, interesting proposals 
could examine the following topics:
-	production models and collaboration cases that exemplify a modern 
Italian business culture in relation to individuals, companies, and 
international networks in support of the propagation of Italian cinema 
in the United States;
-	production of and cultural events related to specific Italian films, 
from conception to financing, from distribution to reception in the 
United States during the period under consideration; and
-	discourses of promotion and enhancement of Italian cinema through U.S.
2	critical or trade journals.
















Save the Dates
→ July 18, 2022	: Abstract submission

→ July 25, 2022	: Notification of acceptance
→ Novembre 9-11, 2022	: Conference




Evaluation Process
Submissions containing a title, an abstract of up to 500 words, five 
keywords, and a brief author(s) biography should be sent in a Word 
document by July 18, 2022, to (transatlantic.visions /at/ uniroma3.it). 
Notification of acceptance will be given by July 25, 2022. The conference 
will open on November 9, 2022, and paper presentations will be held on 
November 10–11 at the Palladium Theater, Roma Tre University. A small 
number of selected contributions will be edited and published in 
proceedings.
Organizers: Enrico Carocci, Ilaria A. De Pascalis, Veronica Pravadelli 
(Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts – Roma Tre 
University).
Conference Website: transatlantic.visions.uniroma3.it




The research project Transatlantic Transfers: The Italian Presence in 
Post- war America (1949–1971) was developed by the University Roma Tre, 
together with the Polytechnic University of Milan (national lead), the 
University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo, and the University of 
Eastern Piedmont. Project website: transatlantictransfers.polimi.it

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