The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social Drama (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226869841)

On March 16, 1978, the former prime minister of Italy, Aldo Moro, was kidnapped by the Red Brigades, and what followed--the fifty-five days of captivity that resulted in Moro's murder--constitutes one of the most striking social dramas of the twentieth century. In this compelling study of terrorism, Robin Wagner-Pacifici employs methods from sociology, symbolic anthropology, and literary criticism to decode the many social "texts" that shaped the event: political speeches, newspaper reports, television and radio news, editorials, photographs, Moro's letters, Red Brigade communiques, and appeals by various international figures. The analysis of these "texts" calls into question the function of politics, social drama, spectacle, and theater. Wagner-Pacifici provides a dramaturgic analysis of the Moro affair as a method for discussing the culture of politics in Italy.

Author: Robin Wagner-Pacifici
ISBN-10: 0226869849
ISBN-13: 9780226869841
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 11/15/1986
Pages: 374
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.01h x 6.06w x 0.83d