Murder Made in Italy
Homicide, Media, and Contemporary Italian Culture

Ellen Nerenberg (Author)

9780253223098

Paperback / softback, published 29 March 2012

400 pages, 10 b&w illus., 5 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.544 kg

"A fantastic array of literary, cinematic, and oral narratives."—Stefania Lucamante, Catholic University of America
"Original, engaging, and thought-provoking . . . quite unlike any other existing book in Italian cultural and media studies."—Ruth Glynn, University of Bristol
"[T]his book provides food for thought for those studying Italy from a wide variety of perspectives."—Contemporary Italian Politics
"Nerenberg's study represents a useful tool for the reading of contemporary Italy crimes from a cultural studies perspective."—H-Italy

Looking at media coverage of three very prominent murder cases, Murder Made in Italy explores the cultural issues raised by the murders and how they reflect developments in Italian civil society over the past 20 years. Providing detailed descriptions of each murder, investigation, and court case, Ellen Nerenberg addresses the perception of lawlessness in Italy, the country's geography of crime, and the generalized fear for public safety among the Italian population. Nerenberg examines the fictional and nonfictional representations of these crimes through the lenses of moral panic, media spectacle, true crime writing, and the abject body. The worldwide publicity given the recent case of Amanda Knox, the American student tried for murder in a Perugia court, once more drew attention to crime and punishment in Italy and is the subject of the epilogue.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Making a Killing
Part I: Serial Killing
1.The "Monster" of Florence: Serial Murders and investigation
2.Monstrous Murder: Serial Killers and Detectives in Contemporary Italian Literature
3.Penile Procedure: The Pleasures and Dangers of Looking in Dario Argento's Cinema
Part II: Matricide and Fratricide Erika, Omar, and Violent Youth in Italy
4."Sono stati loro:" Erika, Omar, and the Double Homicide of Susy Cassini and Gianluca De Nardo in Novi Ligure
5.The Raw and the Cooked: Transnational Media and Violence in Italy's "Cannibal" Pulp Fiction of the 1990s
Part III: Filicide The Bad/Mad Mother of Cogne and Violence Against Children
6.The Yellow and the Black: Cogne or, Crime of the Century
7.Spectacular Grief and Public Mourning
8.Unspeakable Crimes: Children as Witnesses, Victims, and Perpetrators
Epilogue: Kiss Me Deadly
Notes
Bibliography
Index