Writing Milan and Turin in the Light of (Failed) Utopia: Luciano Bianciardi and Paolo Volponi

This article examines a series of novels by Italian writers, Luciano Bianciardi and Paolo Volponi, that capture the transformations brought about by the post-World War II economic growth in the urban-industrial society of Northern Italy. The analysis draws on utopia as, in Ruth Levitas’s words, a ‘desire for a better way of living and being’ and explores how the writers’ frustrated aspirations for social reform result in a dystopic portrayal of Milan and Turin, seen as sites of social injustice, anomie and authoritative power. Italy’s unprocessed past traumas reverberate through urban descriptions: the threat of totalitarianism lingers in industrial architecture and the ways in which urban spaces are organized. Textual analysis refers to Michel Foucault to explore how spatial organization may enhance individualism and productivity. As powerful economic centres, Milan and Turin are privileged locations from which Bianciardi and Volponi reflect on the idiosyncrasies of modernization and on their failed utopian ambitions for a more egalitarian Italian society.