The Mafia: A Cultural History

About this book

What is it about Tony Soprano that makes him so amiable? For that matter how is it that many of us secretly want Scarface to succeed or see Michael Corleone as ultimately a hero? What draws us into the otherwise horrifically violent world of the mafia? In The Mafia Roberto M. Dainotto explores the irresistible appeal of this particular brand of organized crime its history and the mythology we have developed around it. Dainotto traces the development of the mafia from its rural beginnings in Western Sicily to its growth into a global crime organization alongside a parallel examination of its evolution in music print and on the big screen. He probes the tension between the real mafiaits violent often brutal realityand how we imagine it to be: a mythical potpourri of codes of honor family values and chivalry. But rather than dismiss our collective imagining of the mafia as a complete fiction Dainotto instead sets out to understand what needs and desires or material and psychic longing our fantasies about the mafiathe best kind of the bad lifeare meant to satisfy. Exploring the rich array of films books television programs music and even video games portraying and inspired by the mafia this book offers not only a social economic and political history of one of the most iconic underground cultures but a new way of understanding our enduring fascination with the complex society that lurks behind the sinister Omert of the family business.