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Italy in the Age of Pinocchio: Children and Danger in the Liberal Era

of crimes like murder or suicide. Exceptions were occasionally granted. As the works of Roger Parker and Mary Ann Smart have demonstrated, the role of theatre in the politics of the Risorgimento has often been exaggerated or simplified. As John Davis argues, the key theatrical texts could be read in many different ways and often they appealed not only to nationalist sympathizers. Censorship in Italy was hardly harsher than elsewhere in Europe. In most Italian states censorship became more random and unpredictable after 1830. Increasingly, relations with foreign governments, especially Austria, impacted upon the censors’ decisions. Prior to 1848, demands for a more liberal policy towards the theatre spread widely. During the revolutions the theatres became venues for political meetings and hastily written plays with contemporary themes. After the revolutions the resumption of traditional performance was to signify that life was returning to normal, under even tighter rules of censorship, affecting also the Piedmontese theatres. Many theatres struggled financially, a situation further aggravated after Unification, when the new Kingdom refused to grant the principle theatres the subsidies they had enjoyed under their former patrons. In 1864, local prefects were put in charge of approving theatrical performances, watching over public decency, passages that might incite hatred between social classes, or be offensive to foreign powers. Especially during the first years after Unification, public authorities feared pro-Garibaldi demonstrations on stage. The history of Italian theatre remained a history of censorship, also after Unification. Goldstein’s collection is essential reading for anybody wanting to investigate this struggle within a wider European framework.