Italy and the Ecological Imagination: Ecocritical Theories and Practices

Damiano Benvegnù and Matteo Gilebbi, both leading thinkers in ecocritical Italian studies, have convened a lively and wide-ranging collection that confirms the vital relevance of the Environmental Humanities in Italy. Their introductory essay lays out in extraordinarily clear and insightful terms the current state of the evolving interdisciplinary field, both regarding theoretical trends and in light of contemporary Italian legislation. The essays that follow, in a spiraling voyage through landscapes, materials, philosophies, and artistic practices, chart a new map of the Italian peninsula: a map of environmental atrocities but also of profoundly hopeful, creative responses. From the gritty surfaces of Turinese sidewalks to the dioxin-laced lungs of women in the Land of Fires, and from the imploring gaze of a young buffalo to the embracing arm of a land artist, the subjects are compelling, quirky, and have important lessons to impart about environmental pasts and futures.

Dr. Elena Past

Professor of Italian

Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Wayne State University

This is an eminently timely and theoretically sophisticated volume that does justice to the disciplinary and ethical complexity of the ecological impetus currently animating the Humanities. Targeting the theoretical and practical entanglements of nature and culture, the introduction sets out an engaging case for the centrality of the imagination in charting responses to our planetary crises. Nothing is taken for granted here as the editors provide lucid definitions of terms and references, from ecocriticism and the environmental humanities to the notion of Italy itself.

The bi-partite division of the volume into “theories” and “practices” is a happy one, allowing for echoes to emerge across the two sections, designed, as the editors indicate, to “converse” and “converge.” The volume offers a truly impressive range as multiple forms of expression (film, literature, philosophy, sculpture, documentary) are placed in dialogue with an equally impressive range of environmental questions. In this, the volume embodies the spirit of the environmental humanities, characterized precisely by a truly transdisciplinary posture.

This text will have broad appeal, attracting a readership of not only Italianists but also scholars with interests in animal studies, posthumanism, ecofeminism, and new materialism, to name just a few fields. Though rooted within Italian studies, a field central to the environmental humanities, this volume is not at all limited by its national focus. Indeed, multiple chapters explicitly broach global questions through a local Italianist lens. From this perspective, there are some truly stand-out essays, in particular, those by Iovino, Cannamela, and Saporito. The volume’s appeal also lies in its activist engagement with the Anthropocene. Rejecting a posture of despair in the face of our planetary crises, the editors point to the capacity of imaginative thinking to reveal and safeguard our more-than-human planet.

Prof. Dr. Deborah Amberson

University of Florida

[...] it successfully addresses and explores a broad range of artistic and ecocritical dimensions,possibilities that, through the multi-faceted and interdisciplinary approaches taken by the authors, can surely inspire further scholarship, perhaps motivating present and future art and research to address the ongoing ecological crisis.

[Extract from book review on 'Journal of Ecohumanism'. Vol. 3 No. 2 (2024), pp. 285–287. Reviewer: Luca Gambirasio. DOI:10.33182/joe.v3i2.3160]