This volume originates from the Society for Italian Studies Postgraduate Colloquium that has taken place at University of Cambridge in April 2005. It gathers together articles by British, Irish and Italian young researchers working on various aspects of Italian Studies broadly defined since the end of World War II. The volume offers original insights into lesser known aspects of post-war Italian culture and introduces innovative perspectives on literature, women's studies, cinema, history and politics. The result is the interdisciplinary and original examination of Italian culture and society in the last sixty years. The articles are divided into four sections according to the chronological period and the subject they deal with: Female figures, wartime and beyond, Post-war cultural representations, Political writings, Domestic and international Italian politics. Each section is a coherent ensemble and constitutes an example of the far-reaching results achieved by interdisciplinary research.About the Author: Linda Risso is Wiener-Anspach Research Fellow at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. Her research interests include history of European integration and Italian social and political history. In the past years, she has published various articles in Quaderno di Storia Contemporanea and Quaderni di Storia e Letteratura. Monica Boria graduated in modern languages at the Universita di Macerata and obtained an MPhil in Italian Studies at the University of Birmingham. She is a lecturer in Italian at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Among her publications: Teaching Language through Literature, Tuttitalia, 27 (2003); Echoes of Counterculture in Stefano Benni's Humour, Romance Studies Journal 23 (2005); I romanzi di Stefano Benni, in F. Pellegrini, E. Tarantino (eds.), Il romanzo contemporaneo: Voci italiane, Troubador [forthcoming].