La Roma di Mamma Roma: A New Book by Professor Federica Capoferri

Federica Capoferri, Associate Professor of Italian language and literature, recently published her new book, La Roma di Mamma Roma (Rome: Palombi). The book explores Pier Paolo Pasolini’s second movie, Mamma Roma (1962) both in its intrinsic aesthetic and cultural discourse and in its relationships with the ‘material city’ of the times. The book combines a historical account of the urban history of postwar Rome, an in-depth analysis of the movie, and a wider discussion of Pasolini’s cinematic and literary art in the early sixties, providing a multilayered guide to one of the most iconic films on the Eternal City.

Prof. Capoferri teaches Italian language, Italian literature, History of Italian Cinema, and Cinematic Rome. Her research interests include: formal and theoretical intersections between literature and cinema; cinematic screenplays, cinematic and literary representations of modern Rome.

“This book is the result of the encounter between my research and my cinema courses at JCU. For this reason, I would really like to thank my students for all the passion they brought to class. They really motivated me to write this book,” says Professor Capoferri.

A review of Professor Capoferri’s book appeared on April 9, 2018 in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. According to journalist Edoardo Sassi, Capoferri’s book,  is not just for cinephiles and Pasolini experts because it provides a general overview of the history of the city of Rome from 1950 until the 1960 Olympics, at the dawn of the so-called economic boom.
Read the article “Tutto su «Mamma Roma»: luoghi, citazioni, curiosità” (in Italian).