Rome, Postmodern Narratives of a Cityscape

Holdaway, Dom

Until the mid-twentieth century the Western imagination seemed intent on viewing Rome purely in terms of its classical past or as a stop on the Grand Tour. This collection of essays looks at Rome from a postmodern perspective, including analysis of the city's 'unmappability', its fragmented narratives and its iconic status in literature and film.

Introduction: Rome, Postmodern Narratives of a Cityscape, Dom Holdaway, Filippo Trentin; Chapter 1 Between Rome's Walls: Notes on the Role and Reception of the Aurelian Walls, Marco Cavietti; Chapter 2 The Explosion of Rome in the Fragments of a Postmodern Iconography: Federico Fellini and the Forma Urbis, Fabio Benincasa; Chapter 3 Centre, Hinterland and the Articulation of 'Romanness' in Recent Italian Film, Lesley Caldwell; Chapter 4 Topophilia and Other Roman Perversions: On Bertolucci's La Luna, John David Rhodes; Chapter 5 Marcus Aurelius and the Ara Pacis: Notes on the Notion of 'Origin' in Contemporary Rome, Filippo Trentin; Chapter 6 A Postmodern Gaze on the Gasometer, Keala Jewell; Chapter 7 Ecclesiastical Icons: Defining Rome Through Architectural Exchange, James Robertson; Chapter 8 'Roma Interrotta': Postmodern Rome as the Source of Fragmented Narratives, Léa-Catherine Szacka; Chapter 9 Las Vegas by Way of Rome: The Eternal City and American Postmodernism, Richard W. Hayes;