Annachiara Mariani is an assistant professor of Italian. She received her Laurea (BA-MA) in foreign languages and literatures from the Università di Bologna and her Ph.D in Italian from Rutgers University. Her research interests are in Italian cinema, National and Trans-National media studies, and Italian theatre. She has authored a book on the Grotesque Theatre and Pirandello (2013). She has also published numerous articles, essays, film reviews, book reviews on Italian Theatre, Cinema, and the interrelation between cinema and literature. She has recently published a special edition of the journal of Italian cinema and media studies on Sorrentino’s films and TV series. She is currently working on a book-length project on today’s portrayal of the Italian Renaissance through popular culture and television series Flavia Laviosa is senior lecturer in the Department of French, Francophone and Italian Studies at Wellesley College. Her research interests are in Italian women filmmakers. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies and the book series Trajectories. She has authored chapters in the volumes He Was My Father (Peter Lang, 2018) (edited by S. Gastaldi and D. Ward), The Italian Cinema Book (BFI, 2014) (edited by P. Bondanella), A New Italian Political Cinema? Emerging Themes (Troubadour, 2013) (edited by W. Hope) and Popular Italian Cinema and Politics in a Postwar Society (Bloomsbury, 2011) (edited by F. Brizio-Skov). She has published in the Journal of Mediterranean Studies, Journal of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Rivista di Studi Italiani, Italica, Incontri: Rivista Europea di Studi Italiani, among others. She has also guest-edited the Special Issue of Studies in European Cinema, ‘Cinematic Journeys of Italian Women Directors’ (8:2, 2011) and edited Visions of Struggle in Women’s Filmmaking in the Mediterranean (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Contact: Italian Studies, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA.
'This is an extremely valuable contribution to Sorrentino scholarship that, especially when read in conjunction with Kilbourn's monograph, provides a provocative, wide-ranging and thought-provoking overview of Sorrentino's originality and significance. Moreover, it does not fail to engage with the more controversial and divisive aspects of his work, such as his treatment of gender (addressed in essays by Russell Kilbourn and Nicoletta Marini-Maio) and alleged privileging of style over content (addressed in essays by Lydia Tuan and Michela Barisonzi). The book should be of great interest to anyone concerned with Italian cinema, contemporary Italian culture, or the state of global film and television today. Sorrentino has finally achieved the recognition he deserves within academia and I am sure this exciting new collection will only serve as a spur to further scholarship.' -- Alex Marlow-Mann, Modern Italy