Unfinished Business by Renga, Dana;

Long description:

Unfinished Business is the first book to examine Italian mafia cinema of the past decade. It provides insightful analyses of popular films that sensationalize violence, scapegoat women, or repress the homosexuality of male protagonists. Dana Renga examines these works through the lens of gender and trauma theory to show how the films engage with the process of mourning and healing mafia-related trauma in Italy.

Unfinished Business argues that trauma that has yet to be worked through on the national level is displaced onto the characters in the films under consideration. In a mafia context, female characters are sacrificed and non-normative sexual identities are suppressed in order to solidify traditional modes of viewer identification and to assure narrative closure, all so that the image of the nation is left unblemished.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Gender, Trauma and Recent Italian Mafia Cinema

Chapter 1: Oedipal Conflicts in Marco Tullio Giordana’s I cento passi

Chapter 2: Honor, Shame and Vendetta: Pasquale Scimeca’s Placido Rizzotto

Chapter 3: Mafia Woman in a Man’s World: Roberta Torre’s Angela

Chapter 4: The Mafia Noir: Paolo Sorrentino’s Le conseguenze dell’amore

Chapter 5: Men of Honor, Man of Glass: Stefano Incerti’s L’uomo di vetro

Chapter 6: The Female Mob Boss: Edoardo Winspeare’s Galantuomini

Chapter 7: Melancholia and the Mob Weepie: Davide Barletti and Lorenzo Conte’s Fine pena mai: paradiso perduto

Chapter 8: Mourning Disavowed: Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra

Chapter 9: Recasting Rita Atria in Marco Amenta’s La siciliana ribelle

Chapter 10: Trauma Postponed: Claudio Cupellini’s Una vita tranquilla

Epilogue: Why Must Caesar Die?

Works Cited