In the Sign of Continuity: rotogravures and illustrated magazines in post-World War II Italy (1945-1957)

Authors

  • Dario Boemia Università IULM di Milano
  • Elena Gipponi Università IULM di Milano
  • Elena Lalatović University of Zagreb
  • Stefano Locati Università IULM di Milano

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62336/unibg.eac.35.574

Keywords:

Periodical studies, Italian illustrated periodicals, Postwar reconstruction, Visual culture , Text-image relationship

Abstract

Between 1945 and 1957, illustrated magazines became essential cultural tools in postwar Italy, navigating the tension between innovation and continuity with the fascist past. Periodicals emerged as visual and narrative laboratories, where text and image worked together to shape a new collective identity. Through periodical studies and interdisciplinary perspectives, the special issue explores changes in content, format, and language. Publications like Epoca, Tempo, Il Borghese, Grand Hôtel, and Civiltà delle macchine reflect the dynamic interplay between graphic tradition, modern aspirations, and shifting social contexts. Amid cultural revival, political reconciliation, and the resurfacing of national memory, illustrated magazines became privileged platforms to negotiate values, ideologies, and imaginaries.

Author Biographies

Dario Boemia, Università IULM di Milano

Dario Boemia is a research fellow at IULM University in Milan and adjunct professor of Graphic Journalism at Boston College Italy. His research interests include contemporary Italian literature, periodical studies and comics. He co-edited the volumes Book Reviews and Beyond (2021, with S. Locati), Image and Text in Italian Illustrated Periodicals (2024, with E. Gipponi and S. Locati) and For Real. Il fumetto italiano tra realtà e realismo (2024, with SNIF). He is the author of the monographs I denti dell'arte. La letteratura entre-deux-guerres nell'Italiano di Leo Longanesi (2020) and Cronache letterarie negli anni del Boom. Reviews in Italian Newspapers (forthcoming 2025). He is a member of the editorial board of JEPS (Journal of European Periodical Studies) and of the research groups IUPS (Iulm University for Periodical Studies) and SNIF (Studying “n” Investigating Fumetti).

Elena Gipponi, Università IULM di Milano

Elena Gipponi is a researcher in Cinema, Photography and Television at the IULM University in Milan, where she holds the “Critical Writing Workshop for Cinema and Entertainment” and the course “Colour Cultures in Cinema and Media”. His research focuses on the cultural and material aspects of film and media technologies, in particular colour. In 2020, she published the volume An Inadvertent Revolution. From black and white to colour in the media landscape of Italian modernity (Mimesis). He is a member of the IUPS (IULM University for Periodical Studies) research group on illustrated periodicals, with which in 2024 he edited Immagine e testo nei periodici illustrati italiani degli anni 30 and 40 (with Dario Boemia and Stefano Locati, also for Mimesis). He has participated in various national and international research projects, the most recent of which include: PRIN2020: Atlas of Giallo. Storia dei media e cultura popolare in Italia (1954-2020) and PRIN2022: FilmBaseMatters: A Material Approach to the History of Small-Gauge Film in Italy, of which he is unit manager for IULM.

Elena Lalatović, University of Zagreb

Jelena Lalatović is a researcher in literary history, cultural studies and periodical studies. She obtained her PhD in periodical studies in 2023 at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade, with a thesis that was later published under the title Thus was steel tempered: the student press and the struggle for a free university from 1937 to 1968 (2023). From 2018 to March 2025, she worked in the Department of Periodical Studies at the Institute of Literature and Art in Belgrade. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Liminal Waterways Countercultures project at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Zagreb.

Stefano Locati, Università IULM di Milano

Stefano Locati is Rtd-A researcher in cinema at the IULM University in Milan, where he teaches “Visual cultures of Asia: cinema, comics, TV series” and “History of cinema”. His research interests include Japanese, Chinese and Korean cinema, media studies and periodical studies. His most recent volume is Media Mix System. Cinema and Youth Subcultures in Contemporary Japan (2022). He edited with Dario Boemia and Elena Gipponi Image and Text in Italian Illustrated Periodicals of the 1930s and 1940s (2024) and with Dario Boemia Book Reviews and Beyond. Critical Authority, Cultural Industry, and Society in Periodicals between the 18th and the 21st Century (2021). He is the director of Sognielettrici - Festival dell'immaginario fantastico e di fantascienza in Milan and a member of the IUPS (Iulm University for Periodical Studies) research group.

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Published

21-07-2025

How to Cite

Boemia, D., Gipponi, E., Lalatović, E., & Locati, S. (2025). In the Sign of Continuity: rotogravures and illustrated magazines in post-World War II Italy (1945-1957). Elephant & Castle, (35), 2–15. https://doi.org/10.62336/unibg.eac.35.574

Issue

No. 35 (2025): I periodici illustrati nell'Italia del secondo dopoguerra: testo e immagine tra arte, cinema e letteratura

Section

Editoriale

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