Introduction: Body and Urban Space

Cities consist of much more than the built environment and the physical space they occupy: they are experienced by and through the Body. As humans, we inhabit, traverse and construct our urban space, shaping the city, as it, in turn, shapes us. This issue of Annali d#italianistica explores the many ways in which the city is perceived by the Body and how urban space influences the corporeality of those who pass through or abide within it. As part of the “Cross-disciplinary Approaches to Urban Space” network, this volume investigates the ways in which (primarily) Italian cultural production engages with the Body and urban issues. The volume!s varied contributions stem from a range of disciplinary areas, including not only literature (poetry, prose and theatre), but also cinema, photo-graphy, art history, urban planning and architecture. The majority of the articles concern the Italian context; however, given the interdisciplinary nature of the topic itself, we have included a select number of contributions regarding other, related areas, for the purposes of enriching the intertextual dialogue among the essays via a diversity of perspectives. In fact, in devising this issue, one of our primary goals was to advance the debate on urban space and the Body within the Italian context, as well as from different disciplinary perspectives, taking into account their mutual influence.