Terrorism and the Years of Lead in Italian Film

Presentation by Prof. Alan O’Leary (University of Leeds). Organized by the RLL graduate students in Italian. Professor O’Leary is currently associate professor in Italian at the University of Leeds, where he teaches Italian cinema and cultural studies. Professor O’Leary is widely known for his research on terrorism and its relationship to Italian media in general. He has written extensively on this topic, and his works include a 2007 monograph, entitled Tragedia all’Italiana: Cinema e terrorismo tra Moro e memoria (Angelica Editore). This book was also published in a revised English edition: Tragedia all’Italiana: Italian Cinema and Italian Terrorisms, 1970-2010 (Peter Lang, 2011). Professor O’Leary has also published on Italian film comedy and has a forthcoming book on the subject, Fenomenologia del cinepanettone (Phenomenology of Italy’s Blockbuster Comedies, Rubbettino, 2013). He is the editor of The Italianist, the most prominent academic journal of Italian Studies in the U.K

During his presentation Professor O’Leary will discuss how Italian cinema has depicted terrorism, particularly the problematic "Years of Lead". The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session and reception.