From porn queen politicians to patron saints, modern Italian culture is often a complex, fascinating world of paradox and controversy which requires a reliable, unbiased source of explanation and rationale. A partial solution is offered by Routledge with the release of an updated, paperback version of their well‐received Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture. The encyclopedia contains over 900 entries written by an international panel of expert contributors, mainly from the anglophone academic world but with some help from scholars based in Italy, all under the editorship of Gino Moliterno, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University.
For the purposes of this work, contemporary Italy is taken as the period starting in 1945. Organization is alphabetical but a useful thematic entry list and an index offer alternative methods to access information. The thematic entry list breaks subject areas down into architecture, cultural institutions, the economy, education, fashion, film, food and drink, history, intellectual life, language, literature, the mass media and publishing, music, performing arts, politics, religion, society, sport and the visual arts. As can be seen, a very broad approach is taken to culture with both popular and “high” forms represented. We therefore find an intriguing mixture of Dolce & Gabbana, Dacia Maraini, football, motor‐scooters, Nanni Moretti, Romano Prodi, Enzo Ferrari, Padre Pio, the Agnelli family, earthquakes, Pavarotti, pasta, prosciutto, wine and Zanussi. Entries vary in length from one concise paragraph to essays of several pages for subjects like feminism, literature in dialect, or pop and rock music.
As is to be desired in a trusty library reference work, an impartial, factual approach has been sought, even for more emotive issues such as abortion, divorce, Second Vatican Council, the Mafia or the kidnapping and murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. This lack of bias is carried over when dealing with accusations of political corruption or extremism regarding Silvio Berlusconi, Gianfranco Fini, Bettino Craxi, Giulio Andreotti, or heated topics such as Tangentopoli, or Mani pulite.
Common stereotypes about Italian postal services, taxation and bureaucracy are examined. Claudio Radaelli queries widely‐held views on Italian taxation. “Contrary to anecdotal evidence, the Italian tax system is reasonably efficient in gathering revenue, most Italians do pay taxes … As is often the case, however, the devil is in the details”. On Italian postal services, David Moss writes “compared with the EU average, the letters that Italians do write cost one‐third more to send, move towards their destinations at only one‐third of the speed and require significantly more postal workers per item to get them there”.
On the whole, this is an excellent reference tool. I certainly appreciated the valuable overview of Italian publishing, as well as individual entries for key publishers such as Il Mulino, Marsilio, Einaudi and Adelphi. The encyclopedia also helps clarify what has become a very complex political system, particularly following the transformation of the parties in the past decade under the so‐called Second Republic. Kitty Millet’s offering on wine is both enjoyable and informative. Nevertheless there are some areas for criticism. I was certainly less impressed by the complete omission of an entry, or even a reference in the index, to libraries. The Spanish sister volume does have an entry on libraries. Italian libraries are no less key cultural institutions than in Spain. Inevitably not everything that should have been indexed has been indexed, for example, the important Accademia della Crusca and the Accademia dei Lincei, the Laterza publishing house, or crime writer Andrea Camilleri. Similarly there is no consistency in the way political parties are indexed. Some are indexed by acronym (DC or PCI), others by Italian name (Forza Italia), and others by English translation (National Alliance). If 1945 is taken as the cut‐off point for contemporary, then why give Antonio Gramsci who died in 1937 a fairly lengthy entry of a page, but not give Mussolini even a short entry? If the layout of the book is attractive with a clear, legible font, the paperback cover is not going to be adequate for library reference purposes, especially given the size and weight of the volume.
Representing the complexities of modern Italian culture in one volume is certainly no easy task but the Routledge Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture succeeds in providing a broad, reliable overview of the wonders, joys and frustrations of modern Italy. This work can be strongly recommended.
