Giacomo Matteotti (1885-1924) was an anti-fascist icon whose murder made him a symbol of the struggle against tyranny in Italy. Though he was a very prolific journalist, he was primarily known as an influential and vocal member of the Italian Parliament who openly opposed the violence and corruption of Mussolini's fascist dictatorship. Matteotti was devoted to improving the lives of the working class, and passionate about creating positive changes in society through social reforms. Shortly after he publicly denounced the fascist party for their blatant electoral fraud in 1924, Matteotti was kidnapped and murdered by Mussolini's supporters. The present volume includes a significant selection of his writings, most of which are appearing in English translation for the first time. Since his political journalism went hand in hand with his tireless work as an elected official and member of the Chamber of Deputies, this edition also includes three of his most important parliamentary speeches, as well as an appendix consisting of two letters he wrote in the months leading up to his untimely death.
Philip Balma is an Associate Professor of Italian Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut, USA, where he teaches modern Italian literature and film. His translations of contemporary Italian literature and criticism have appeared in Translation Review, Italian Poetry Review, Italica, Forum Italicum, the Journal of Italian Translation, and The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories (Ed. Jhumpa Lahiri). He has translated works by several Italian writers, including Ennio Flaiano, Eugenio Montale, Edith Bruck, and Fernando Bandini. His published volumes include Translating for (and from) the Italian Screen (2020), The Jewish Experience in Contemporary Italy (Special Issue of NEMLA Italian Studies, vol. 37, 2015) Edith Bruck in the Mirror: Fictional Transitions and Cinematic Narratives (2014), L'Italia letteraria e cinematografica dal secondo Novecento ai giorni nostri (2012) and The Necessary Foreign: Translating Dialects (Special Issue of Translation Studies Journal, vol. 3, 2011).
