Murder made in Italy - Ellen Victoria Nerenberg

Looking at media coverage of three very prominent murder cases, Murder Made in Italy explores the cultural issues raised by the murders and how they reflect developments in Italian civil society over the past 20 years. Providing detailed descriptions of each murder, investigation, and court case, Ellen Nerenberg addresses the perception of lawlessness in Italy, the country's geography of crime, and the generalized fear for public safety among the Italian population. Nerenberg examines the fictional and nonfictional representations of these crimes through the lenses of moral panic, media spectacle, true crime writing, and the abject body. The worldwide publicity given the recent case of Amanda Knox, the American student tried for murder in a Perugia court, once more drew attention to crime and punishment in Italy and is the subject of the epilogue.

Ellen Nerenberg is Hollis Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University. She is author of Prison Terms: Representing Confinement During and After Italian Fascism and translator and editor of (with Nicoletta Marini-Maio and Thomas Simpson), Body of State: The Moro Affair, a Nation Divided.

"Nerenberg's study represents a useful tool for the reading of contemporary Italy crimes from a cultural studies perspective."

"[T]his book provides food for thought for those studying Italy from a wide variety of perspectives."