Watching Sympathetic Perpetrators on Italian Television: Gomorrah and Beyond

by Dana Renga

Overview

This book offers the first comprehensive study of recent, popular Italian television. Building on work in American television studies, audience and reception theory, and masculinity studies, Sympathetic Perpetrators and their Audiences on Italian Television examines how and why viewers are positioned to engage emotionally with—and root for—Italian television antiheroes. Italy’s most popular exported series feature alluring and attractive criminal antiheroes, offer fictionalized accounts of historical events or figures, and highlight the routine violence of daily life in the mafia, the police force, and the political sphere. Renga argues that Italian broadcasters have made an international name for themselves by presenting dark and violent subjects in formats that are visually pleasurable and, for many across the globe, highly addictive. Taken as a whole, this book investigates what recent Italian perpetrator television can teach us about television audiences, andour viewing habits and preferences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030115029
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	02/13/2019
Edition description:	1st ed. 2019
Pages:	334
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dana Renga is Associate Professor of Italian at The Ohio State University, USA. She is the author of Unfinished Business: Screening the Italian Mafia in the New Millennium (2013), the editor of Mafia Movies: A Reader (2011), and has published extensively on Italian cinema and television.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Sympathetic Serial Offenders.- 2. Rai: “Educate while entertaining – entertain while educating” in L’ultimo dei Corleonesi, “Niente di personale,” and Il segreto dell’acqua.- 3. Mediaset’s Middlebrow Model: Il capo dei capi, L’ultimo padrino, Il clan dei camorristi, and L’onore e il rispetto.- 4. Sky’s Offer You Can’t Refuse and Romanzo criminale. La serie’s Criminal Payoffs.- 5. Faccia d’angelo: “The Allure of Evil”.- 6. 1992 and 1993’s Difficult Masculinities.- 7. Making Men in Gomorrah 1 and Gomorrah 2.- 8. #ciaonetflix: Suburra. La serie as “International Patrimony”.- 9. Conclusions: Gomorrah 3 and Italian Television Abroad.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Dana Renga’s Sympathetic Perpetrators succeeds admirably in leading us on an extraordinary journey through the ins and outs of Italy’s crime series output, which has raised the quality bar and prompted a real renaissance in Italian TV. The book explores titles such as Romanzo Criminale, Gomorrah or Suburra—to name but three of the most internationally renowned—and applies a close textual analysis to laser in on characters who elicit empathetic appeal while raising ethical dilemmas in viewers’ minds. In doing so, it provides pivotal insights not only for understanding a key aspect of Italy’s contemporary popular culture but also more broadly for contextualising the significance of anti-heroes in today’s television drama, which creates a hidden yet strong link from quality US output (from The Sopranos to Breaking Bad and beyond) to the European offerings.” (Massimo Scaglioni, University of Milan, Italy)

“This ground-breaking work examines the representation of organised crime and its perpetrators on Italian television. Renga’s readings of these problematically attractive ‘sympathetic perpetrators’ are original and convincing: she digs deep into the Italian fascination with glamorous male criminals, bringing in audience responses and industry marketing. This welcome book offers a new take on both series that have had international success (Gomorrah, Romanzo criminale, Suburra), and those that are avidly consumed by audiences at home.” (Catherine O'Rawe,University of Bristol, UK)

“Dana Renga’s authoritative account of criminals, mobsters and corrupt politicians in Italian serial television reveals that her ‘sympathetic perpetrators’ have evolved differently from those on US television. Spoiler: the Italians are bad but beautiful! Renga teases out how viewer sympathy for these attractive antiheros refracts international fascination with Italy's murky recent history—hence the success abroad of Gomorra and other series. This comprehensive account is likely to be the point of reference for some time to come.” (Alan O’Leary, University of Leeds, UK)