1,720,993 research outputs found
Costruire l’esotico coloniale. Convergenze transmediali nell’Italia fascista
No full textThis monographic issue delves into the multifaceted manifestations of exoticism within Italian colonial cultures. Examining the systematic appropriation and re-signification of exotic imagery and narratives made during the fascist Ventennio and beyond, it explores how such elements were strategically utilised to popularise an image of Africa, which was instrumental to political and propagandistic purposes. The analysis encompasses and connects various domains and case-studies, including literature, visual arts, cinema, photography, exhibitions, and music, in order to assess the extent to which exotic discourses transcended and adapted across multi- ple media forms. Such a transmedial approach will elucidate how the discourse of exoticism contributed to shape pervasive and everchanging meanings about «otherness», which were fashioned according to different political and social contexts of reception. Furthermore, by un- ravelling the complexities of exoticism in fascist Italy and even in the Post-War scenario, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the cultural strategies aiming to fashion a certain image of national identity and qualities
Watching Films in Italian East Africa (1936-41). Fascist Ambitions, Contradictions, and Anxieties
No full textThis article examines film consumption within the Fascist empire of Italian East Africa (1936-1941). In dialogue with recent scholarship exploring social and cultural aspects of the Italian presence in the Horn of Africa, it draws on original archival research to investigate the stories, theories and practices underpinning the Fascist intervention. The implementation of itinerant screening by state authorities as well as the organization of distribution, censorship and consumption's spaces concerning movie theatres will be interpreted within a broad critical framework, which will highlight the impact of the Fascist intervention in the field of colonial culture compared with previous or coeval experiences and projects of film consumption in Africa. Analysis reveals the difficulties in arranging a racially segregated cinematic experience and the related imperfect level of Fascistization of the imperial society, in part because the Fascist empire was short-lived and, especially in Ethiopia, it was constantly threatened by local resistance. However, the article argues that the substantial failure of the Fascistization of film consumption primarily stems from the unsuccessful relationship that Fascism established with pre-existing theatre owners. It also reveals how the transnational nature of film practices de facto inhibited their seamless adaptation to the Fascist's imperial agenda
Amnesia, aphasia and amnesty : the articulations of Italian colonial memory in postwar films (1946–1960)
No full textThis article aims to expose the political and cultural processes that contributed to the eradication of problematic memories of the Italian colonial period during the national reconstruction following the Second World War. It offers a systematic examination of newsreels and documentaries about the Italian former colonies that were produced between 1946 and 1960, a film corpus that has largely been neglected by previous scholarship. The article first dissects the ambiguous political scenario that characterised the production of this footage through the study of original archival findings. The footage configured a particular form of self-exculpatory memory, which obstructed a thorough critique of the colonial period while articulating a new discourse about the future presence of Italy in the former colonies. This seems to be a case of aphasia rather than amnesia, insofar as the films addressed not an absence, but an inability to comprehend and articulate a critical discourse about the past. This aphasic configuration of colonial memories will be tackled through a close reading of the voice-over and commentary. In so doing, this work suggests that the footage actively contributed to spread un-problematised narratives and memories about the colonial period, whose results still infiltrate Italian contemporary society, politics and culture.
Il lavoro proposto vuole analizzare l'intreccio tra i processi politici e culturali che hanno contribuito alla formazione di memorie acritiche sul periodo coloniale italiano durante la fase di perdita delle colonie, avvenuta dopo la seconda guerra mondiale. Nello specifico, verranno studiati la produzione, la circolazione e i contenuti dei cinegiornali e dei documentari sulle ex colonie prodotti tra il 1946 e il 1960 e indirettamente sostenuti dal governo italiano. Lo studio di fonti archivistiche originali permetterà di ricostruire le interferenze politiche che hanno caratterizzato la produzione di questi filmati. L'analisi dei contenuti si concentrerà, invece, sul commento parlato, per dimostrare come il corpus filmico abbia contribuito a configurare una particolare forma di memoria auto-assolutoria e tutto sommato positiva del passato coloniale. Ciò ha contribuito ad inibire una critica approfondita degli aspetti più violenti di quella stagione mentre veniva articolato un nuovo discorso sulla futura presenza dell'Italia nelle ex colonie. Piuttosto che caratterizzata da rimozioni o amnesie, questa memoria si è configurata come afasica. I film infatti non veicolarono un'assenza, ma mostrarono l'incapacità di comprendere e articolare un discorso critico sul passato coloniale. Questoricerca spiega come questi film abbianno attivamente contribuito a diffondere narrazioni e ricordi positivi sul periodo coloniale, le cui eredità s'insinuano tutt'oggi nella società, nella politica e nella cultura italiana
Discourses of impegno and Italian colonial legacies: Reassessing times, spaces and voices in documentaries on (post)colonial mobility
No full textThis article examines how Hotel Abyssinie (Plattner, 1996), Aulo. Roma Postcoloniale (Brioni, Guida and Chiscuzzu 2012) and Asmarina (Maglio and Paolos, 2015) explore the entangled relationship between colonial memories, migrations and belongings in contemporary Italy. Since each film addresses the temporality and spatiality of colonial legacies, the assessment of the use of old materials (mainly pictures and found footage) will enable the reflection on the complicated Italian colonial memories; this strand also deals with the analysis of the spaces of (post) colonial interaction through the concept of heterotopia. These artistic strategies, together with some other stylistic choices, will be regarded as aiming to engender either narratives or counter-narratives within the discourse of civic engagement, or postmodern impegno, that each documentary unfolds, and to which it conforms. In so doing, these documentaries stand as representative of an artistic production that is challenging the surreptitiously monolithic image of Italian identity
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