The Mirage of America in Contemporary Italian Literature and Film explores the use of images associated with the United States in Italian novels and films released between the 1980s and the 2000s. In this study, Barbara Alfano looks at the ways in which the individuals portrayed in these works and the intellectuals who created them confront the cultural construct of the American myth. As Alfano demonstrates, this myth is an integral part of Italians discourse to define themselves culturally in essence, Italian intellectuals talk about America often for the purpose of talking about...