Italian Posthumanism(s)

Venturing in search of what might be distinctly Italian within posthumanist thought, this edited volume traces a compelling arc from classical antiquity to the present. It surveys literature, film, comics, theoretical and philosophical currents, and the arts more broadly across the spectrum of high culture and counterculture, revealing unexpected correspondences between distant pasts and modernity’s immediacies. Rather than rejecting the human(ist), these varied posthumanisms engage it in an uneasy yet generative exchange at the threshold of anthropocentrism and its beyond, challenging reductive interpretations. Through diverse critical perspectives and illuminating case studies, the book advances a provocative claim: that Italian discourse and culture have long been, in original yet often elusive ways, inherently posthumanist.

Gloria Lauri-Lucente is Professor of Italian and Director of the Institute of Anglo-Italian Studies at the University of Malta, specialising in Comparative Literature and Film, with numerous publications and co-edited volumes in her fields.Fabrizio Foni is Senior Lecturer in Italian and member of the Institute of Anglo-Italian Studies at the University of Malta, specialising in popular culture, with research interests spanning the Gothic and the Fantastic, horror, occulture, and posthumanism.