'HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB'. NUCLEAR THREAT, APOCALYPSE AND TECHNOCRITIQUE IN ITALIAN CULTURE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

This article discusses the theme of nuclear threat in Italian narratives and culture during the 'Cold War' (1945-89). Texts are discussed by a range of authors, including Leonardo Sinisgalli, Edoardo De Filippo, Elsa Morante, Leonardo Sciascia, Paolo Volponi, Alberto Moravia, and Marco Belpoliti. For much of the century the atomic bomb has been viewed, more than as just a historical and technical development, as a projective fetish-object in which to bring together ideologically conceived rationales as well as fears and anxieties linked to the general process of modernization that Italy was undergoing during the years of the economic boom.