Browsing by Subject "Italian history"
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Item Self-presentation, representation, and a reconsideration of Cosa nostra through the expanding narratives of Tommaso Buscetta(2019-05) Bush, Amanda Rose; Bonifazio, Paola, 1976-; Bini, Daniela; Sturm, Circe; Montalbano , AlessandraThis dissertation explores the narratives of Tommaso Buscetta (Italy’s first pentito from Cosa nostra) as an exemplum of historically dominant discourses on organized crime. Departing from Buscetta’s 1984 Depositions, this dissertation aims to fill a void in existing scholarship on the representation of organized crime across media. The author argues that Tommaso Buscetta, both in his own self-modelling and in the subsequent narratives that arose from his collaboration with the Italian State, can be read as a continuity with literarily produced narratives of a noble mafia and in which the mafioso represents honor, dignity, and respect. Based on archival research on Buscetta’s depositions, print news media during the 1986 Maxi Trial of Palermo, and on literary and media research into the offspring narratives (biographies and docudramas, mainly), this dissertation provides an analysis of the tenacity of apologist mafia narratives and their implications in the historical world. Through theoretical engagement with recent studies on autobiography, co-authorship, celebrated criminality, and docudrama, the author of this dissertation provides the first study of Tommaso Buscetta as a transmedia icon.