Barbara Pezzotti

My research has focused on geographical representations (national and regional) in Italian crime fiction. I have also explored the intersection between history and crime fiction as well as transmediality within the genre with a particular focus on films and TV series.

My interest in crime fiction has developed throughout the years. I started with the representation of place, and regional versus national identities in Italian crime fiction. Subsequently I analysed historical crime writing and its relevance to the present. I have finally expanded my scope from Italian to Mediterranean crime fiction, including French, Italian, Spanish, Algerian and Greek crime novels, with a focus on border control and illegal immigration. At the same time I have co-edited volumes that address the issue of the representation of the “other”, as well as investigating the serial format and the use of food in international crime writing.

Italian crime fiction

I am particularly interested in how setting informs the crime genre. In 2012 I published The Importance of Place in contemporary Italian Crime Fiction. A Bloody Journey. This book was the first study to systematically address the representation of cities, the urban sprawl and islands in Italian crime fiction and how these settings influence the crime narrative. This book has been positively reviewed in the leading journals of Italian Studies. In his review for the Journal of Romance Studies Marco Amici praises my study “for the quality of the analysis and the wide range of issues and concerns investigated”.

My following book Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction. An Historical Overview (2014) argues for Italian crime fiction as the new social novel. By coining the term “moral rebellion” as opposed to the term of “impegno” (traditionally confined to Communist intellectuals and writers), I wrote a history of an enduring political and social commitment in Italian crime fiction since its origin and beyond traditional ideological umbrellas. In so doing, my book fights persistent resistance from Italian scholarship to see crime fiction as worthwhile literature. In his review for Italica, Angelo Castagnino praises the book for “highlighting traditionally underestimated aspects such as the subversive role that crime fiction played during Fascism”. This books has been extensively quoted and endorsed by leading scholars in the field: “Interweaving history and context with full accounts of major authors, Pezzotti demonstrates for the first time how crime fiction has dynamically energized the social and political self-consciousness of modern Italy (Stephen Knight); “A timely and fascinating study of Italian crime fiction as politically committed art, it brilliantly illuminates how the genre both reflects and more importantly intervenes in the important social and political changes of the 20th and 21st centuries.” (Andrew Pepper).

Finally, Murder in the Age of Chaos (2016) analyses the intersection between history and crime fiction and its relevance to the present. Endorsement for my latest monograph include:

“With this book, Pezzotti further cements her reputation as the foremost expert on the intersection of place, history, and national identity in Italian crime fiction. Essential reading.” (Robert Rushing); “Pezzotti’s fine book presents an authoritative overview of recent Italian crime fiction. Lucidly written and compellingly interdisciplinary, this book emphasises the capacity of crime fiction to fill in the gaps left by historians, and the power and relevance of cultural responses to a contested and difficult past.” (Philip Cooke); and “Pezzotti’s fascinating study shows how crime fiction has been used to probe and question Italy's historical open wounds and unresolved legacies. The Risorgimento, Fascism and the war, and the anni di piombo are each carefully illuminated in turn through the lens and intelligent eye of the contemporary giallo.” (Robert S. C Gordon).

My books and journal articles have also been quoted in Masters Theses, PhD theses, journal articles and monographs published by prestigious publishers, such as Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Palgrave McMillan and Ashgate. My books are also on the reading lists of university crime fiction courses offered in Italy, the UK, and the Unites States.

International and Mediterranean crime fiction

I have recently expanded my interest into international and transnational crime fiction, including TV series. I have co-edited (with Jean Anderson and Carolina Miranda) three edited collections on international crime fiction. I have recently co-published (with Carolina Miranda) an article entitled “Bridging the Gap? Investigating Food and Identity in Transnational Television Series” (in Blood on the Table, 2018). For my next project I analyse Italian, French, Spanish, Greek and Algerian crime fiction. In particular, I explore the representation and interpretation of topical issues, such as illegal immigration, border control and gender violence in so-called Mediterranean noir which I then compare to the universally popular Nordic noir. My aim is to investigate how Southern authors intervene in the public debates about immigration and whether (and why) they share themes, interpretations and perspectives with Nordic crime authors.

Supervision

I have experience supervising HDR theses on crime fiction. I am supervising a PhD on the theatrical influences in Andrea Camilleri’s crime writing.

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