Captivity and Social Justice in Modern Italian Culture

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

CAPTIVITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN MODERN ITALIAN CULTURE

26-27 FEBRUARY 2021

UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER – YORK UNIVERSITY

ORGANIZERS

Elena Bellina (University of Rochester), Matteo Brera (York University)

Imprisonment has traditionally been a contested topic and, in the Italian context, the field of Captivity Studies has recently emerged in response to the need of questioning the impact of a variety of forms of imprisonment on the national memory and identity in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Thus, the Italian case is an extremely fruitful testbed to evaluate to what extent the transformations undergone throughout the last century by culturally relevant forms of imprisonment shaped public discourse and were represented in trans-medial context.

Bringing together scholars engaged with the theme of captivity across different research areas in the Humanities and the Social Sciences, this conference aims to be a forum for discussing how trans-medial fictional and non-fictional representations of captivity (including e.g. fascist political confinement, WWII internment, political abductions, ransom kidnappings, penitentiaries, asylums and refugee camps), influenced – and influence – the public opinion and the legislator, thus helping redefine the genre of testimony within the Italian criminological, literary and philosophical traditions.

Link to Zoom Meeting ;https://yorku.zoom.us/j/99801646558?pwd=MCtjRW5kY1RRVVhIWEdNbmJmK0VEZz09

Please RSVP at captivityandsocialjustice@gmail.com to obtain meeting ID and Password. The event is free.