leonetti editors (2 risultati)

Hardcover. Originalbroschur, gr. 8°. xxiii, 476 Seiten, mit Abbildungen, mit Gebrauchsspuren, sehr gutes Exemplar. in englischer Sprache.

Milan: Multhipla edizioni (from 1981 publishing by Intrapresa), 1979-1988. Folios (43.5 × 32 cm). Original printed self-wrappers; between 16 and 48 pp.; mostly between 32 and 40 pp. with numerous reproduced photographs and illustrations. All issues with the customary horizontal trace of the fold; a few issues with a small number of underlinings; a few leaves somewhat toned; else very good. Complete run of the important cultural journal in which the Italian intelligentsia turned away from Marxism towards post-structuralism and post-modernism. One of the founders was Nanni Ballestrini, whose idea was to provide a forum for the heterogeneous currents of contemporary Italian culture and the humanities. Ballestrini was one of the leading figures of the "Gruppo 63", which experimented early on with visual components and electronic media in poetry. After the group disbanded, Ballestrini became involved in the Italian New Left as a publicist, among other things. Not long after founding "alfabeta", he was accused of alleged involvement in Italian left-wing terrorism. Ballestrini went into hiding in France and Germany. Many years later, the accusations turned out to be false. The Ballestrini case was also the subject of numerous appeals and expressions of solidarity in the early issues. The name of the journal has its origins in the Fluxus movement. Gino di Maggio, one of the initiators of "alfabeta", founded the periodical "a-beta" a few years earlier together with George Brecht, one of the main representatives of Fluxus, which saw itself decidedly as a dissemination medium for Fluxus. A total of eight issues were published by the Milan publishing house "Multipla", which was managed by Gino di Maggio and which began to publish the culturally much broader periodical "alfabeta" every month around two years after the Fluxus journal was discontinued. In 1981, Gianni Sassi, who was already responsible for the journal as designer and art director, took over the publishing duties. One of the periodical's main genres was the comprehensive review, primarily of fiction, essays, and theory, but also of newspapers and periodicals. One of the journal's self-imposed tasks was already stated in the first issue: "to read or re-read what has been said and what still needs to be said." In the 1980s, "alfabeta" was one of the few journals in Italy that repeatedly succeeded in stimulating cultural debates and promoting literary trends. The photographs and illustrations printed in the issues were each dedicated to a specific theme and often appeared as a preview of and insight into current exhibitions and book publications. They were therefore not subordinate to the texts, but led their own discourse alongside the texts, as it were. Political topics include feminism, the environmental movement, media and spectacle. The disintegration of Marxist theories and the resulting increase in post-structuralist thinking (Derrida, Barthes, Lyotard, Baudrillard) had a significant impact on the journal, as can be seen, for example, in its engagement with psychoanalysis (Deleuze and Guattari). In doing so, "alfabeta" did not take the side of "postmodern thinking", but also allowed its critics to have their say, such as Jürgen Habermas, who believed he recognized a shift to the right in the reception of Heidegger, for example by Derrida. Even the post-modern critic Maurizio Ferraris, later one of the initiators of a new realism, speaks out extensively against Lyotard. Not insignificant for this change in the debate is the technical development, especially the increasing importance of the computer in the 1980s (Paul Virilio, Niklas Luhmann). An entire issue was published under the title "lo scimpanze lo scriba e il computer" (the chimpanzee, the writer, and the computer). The origins of the journal in Fluxus are also noticeable in its great interest in all aesthetic developments, such as the visual arts, theater, cinema, pop and rock music, etc. Even comics are the subject of theoretical examinations (Roberto Giovannoli, "Postmodern comix"). Interest in the avant-gardes and neo-avant-gardes is also a continuity of the journal, with a particular historical interest in Italian Futurism. (Cf. Giovanna Lo Monaco, Alfabeta, in: Alle due sponde della cortina di ferro. Le culture del dissenso e la definizione dell'identità europea nel secondo Novecento tra Italia, Francia e URSS 1956-1991, Florence 2019.).