Journal Schermi – Storie e culture del cinema e dei media in Italia (Anno III, N. 6, 2019)

Deadline: March 10, 2019

Edited by Giancarlo Grossi and Myriam Mereu

Over the past twenty years the question of generations has played a central role in the academic and public debates in Italy, establishing itself as a research paradigm in several disciplinary domains. Generation and the approaches to its study are used especially to analyse collective, national and transnational identities (Bontempi, 2008); social and labour policies (Boldizzoni/Sala, 2009; Capeci, 2014), migratory flows (Leonini-Rebughini, 2010); microsocial and familial changes (Varriale, 2011); consumption and taste cultures (Capuzzo, 2003) and, above all, media experiences (Aroldi/Colombo, 2003; Scifo, 2005; Bontempi, 2008, Spaziante, 2010; Teti, 2011; Mascheroni, 2012).

The success of generation studies and theories is down to its ductility and its semantic potential, which includes at least four meanings (Boucier-Béquaert/de Banier, 2010). Firstly, generation can be considered as a cohort, that is, a group of people who were born at about the same time and have made choices and traced their biographical paths (personal and professional) in the same historical moment, sharing opportunities, limits and challenges. Secondly, we can assume the term generation as a phase of life: childhood, adulthood, seniority, with their specificities, their needs, the role and the meaning they play in society. Thirdly, generation can be understood as descent or affiliation, with a focus on microsystems, such as family or companies: in this case the focus is on legacies or changes, or rather on the conflicts that arise from the relationship among individuals characterised by different personal competencies and experiences. Finally – and this is the most popular meaning today – generation can be understood as a community, a group of people who, besides living in the same historical moment, share the same values, attitudes, trends, and tastes.

This special issue assumes the term generation with all its meanings, and with its entire heritage of theories, approaches, models of interpretation. Its aim is to apply this concept to the history of cinema and audio-visual media in Italy.

Possible topics for contributions may include:

• Images, representations, narratives of generations;
• Generational languages: slangs, aesthetics, styles;
• Generational cults and intermediate dynamics;
• Generations and production strategies: teen movies, grey-hair-pics
• Generational products and technologies: culture, fandom phenomena, trends;
• Meme generations and digital narratives;
• Generation and nostalgia: remake, remaking, reboot;
• Generations of spectators: consumption, tastes, preferences;
• Cinema, audiovisual media and life cycles: childhood, seniority, adulthood;
• Histories of ‘family’ cinema companies: legacies, conflicts, generational transitions;
• Generational authors and generations of authors: plots, affiliations, common experiences;
• Actors and generations: popularity, hero worship, processes of identification;
• "My Generation": soundtracks and generational hymns;
• Generation theories and cinema: paradigms and theoretical issues;
• Methodologies and tools to study cinema through the theories of generation

Proposals of no more than 300 words, in Italian or English, and accompanied by an essential bibliography should be submitted to my.mereu@gmail.com and giancarlo.grossi@unimi.it by 10/03/2019. Authors of the abstracts that are accepted for consideration will be invited, by 25/3/2019, to submit a complete essay (between 30,000 and 35,000 characters in length, including notes), accompanied by an abstract of 100 words, and five keywords, by 15/06/2019.

LINK: https://riviste.unimi.it/public/journals/69/cfpn.6.pdf