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Description
This module will explore how the Fascist period, including the Resistance and the Holocaust, have been remembered and interpreted in Italy since 1945. We will study how modes of remembrance, forgetting and commemoration have shifted and developed over the last 75 years and the role that Fascism has played and continues to play in Italian collective memory. Among the topics to be examined will be the myth of 鈥榠taliani brava gente鈥� (Italians good people), the 鈥榙ifficult heritage鈥� of Fascist-era art and architecture which is ubiquitous in Italy and the rise of neo-Fascist political parties. We will consider how the Italian public has encountered the memory of Fascism since 1945 by studying its representation in cinema, exhibitions and museum displays. For comparative purposes, we will also study selected exhibitions about Fascism that have occurred outside of Italy and will examine how former the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Albania have confronted and managed the material legacies of the Fascist regime.听
I would propose to teach this module in a mixture of English and Italian.听
Indicative primary sources听
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听Photographs of Fascist-era architecture and memorials to victims of WW2 and the Holocaust;听 virtual tours of selected museums听
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听Exhibition catalogues related to Fascist-era art, e.g. Arte moderna in Italia, 1915鈥�1935 (Florence, 1967) and Gli anni trenta (Milan, 1982)听
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听Primo Levi, I sommersi e i salvati (1986) / The Drowned and the Saved, trans. Raymond Rosenthal (Simon & Schuster, 2017)听
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听Igiaba Scego, 鈥業l museo del fascismo a Predappio 猫 sbagliato鈥�, Internazionale, 5 March 2016听
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Indicative secondary sources听
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听Angelo Del Boca, Italiani brava gente? Un mito duro a morire (Neri Pozza, 2005)听
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听Francesco Filippi, Ma perch茅 siamo ancora fascisti? (Bollati Boringhieri, 2020)听
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听Robert S. Gordon, The Holocaust in Italian Culture, 1944鈥�2010 (Stanford University Press, 2012)听
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
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