Within and outside the nation: former colonial subjects in post-war Italy

Deplano, Valeria

doi:10.1017/mit.2018.27

Cited by 16 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…Social science studies, too, with a contemporary focus on immigration to Italy have neglected to investigate extra-European immigration prior to 1980, long held wrongly as the moment Italy became a receiving country of labour migrants. The historiographic neglect of early postwar non-European migration to Italy can be interpreted as a reflection of the silence in Italian society and in scholarship around Italy's post-1945 status as a postcolonial nation (Mellino 2006;Deplano 2018). It contrasts with the thriving scholarship on nineteenth-and twentiethcentury Italian emigration, including women emigrants (Friedman-Kasaba 1996;Bianchi 2001;Gabaccia 1988).…”

Section: The Articles: Themes and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Gender and work in twentieth-century Italy: new approaches

Bracke,

Favretto,

Pizzolato

2024

Mod. Italy

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This introduction to the special issue ‘Gender and Work in Twentieth-Century Italy’ draws on key strands of historical scholarship on gender and work, including women workers’ experiences, labour market discrimination, domestic work, the impact of gender norms, and ideas of masculinity and femininity on work identities. It traces the development of feminist influence within this scholarship, from making women workers’ experiences visible to challenging essentialist notions of gender identities. Drawing on post-structuralist and intersectional perspectives, particularly influenced by Joan Wallach Scott and Judith Butler, the scholarship on which this special issue is based understands gender as a system of power signified through language and social constructions, and builds on the critique of the dichotomies and essentialisations of traditional labour history, proposing a systemic and structural approach to understanding gendered experiences of work. By exploring the intersections of gender, work and power, this collection offers insights into wider European developments and challenges established historical concepts and narratives. It highlights the importance of understanding gender dynamics in shaping labour relations and social structures, ultimately contributing to a more nuanced understanding of labour and power dynamics in twentieth-century Italy and beyond.

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Section: The Articles: Themes and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Gender and work in twentieth-century Italy: new approaches

Bracke,

Favretto,

Pizzolato

2024

Mod. Italy

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“…She argues that whether students, workers or former soldiers of the Italian army, subjects coming to Italy from former colonies were deeply perceived as racially 'others,' although the Italian Republic rejected in its Constitution any racist ideology (Deplano 2017). The hardships experienced by Libyans and Eritreans applying for Italian citizenship, and the 'anti-black' sentiment suffered by Somali students in Italy in the 1960s, prove how among Italian institutions (political and administrative) and society at large, persisted the image of a white and ethnically homogeneous nation, developed during the Fascist rule (Deplano 2018).…”

Section: Fiorellamentioning

confidence: 99%

‘We Were all Italian!’: The construction of a ‘sense of Italianness’ among Jews from Libya (1920s–1960s)

Rossetto

2021

History and Anthropology

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The paper explores how a 'sense of Italianness' formed among Jews in Libya during the Italian colonial period and in the decades following its formal end. Based on interviews with Jews born in Libya to different generations and currently living in Israel and Europe, the essay considers the concrete declensions of this socio-cultural phenomenon and the different meanings that the respondents ascribe to it. Meanings span from the macro level of historical events and societal changes, to the micro level of individual social relations and material culture. Viewed across generations and framed in the peculiarities of Italian colonial history, the 'sense of Italianness' expressed by Jews in Libya appears as both a colonial and post-colonial legacy.

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“…For a thorough research on the askari that were deported to Italy and the ways in which they were instrumentally used by the Italian government to build diplomatic relationships with the former colonies' governments see the works ofMorone (2008Morone ( , 2013Morone ( , 2015 andDeplano (2018).6 The government counselor Belli lamented the general tendency of the former askari "to integrate into Italian society by mixing themselves with the locals and looking for occupations." In ACS ,, b.…”

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confidence: 99%

Building the Intimate Boundaries of the Nation

Tarchi¹

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The study of the regulation of "mixed" intimacies between Italian settlers and people that fell under Italian colonial rule can clarify processes of racialization of subaltern social groups while pointing at the construction of Italian whiteness in the colonial environment. However, research on mixed intimacies during Italian colonialism has focused solely on the Eastern African colonial contexts, namely, how such relationships unfolded and were regulated in Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia during Italian colonial rule. With this research, I aim to add to this research landscape the context of the Italian colonization of Libya (1911-1942), to assess whether Italian colonial administrators regulated intimacies between Italians and Libyans and to ascertain whether these regulations played a role in the racialization of Libya and the identification of Italians as white. In order to do so, I deployed a socio-legal and cultural analysis approach to the examination of official archival sources collected in the Italian state, Vatican, and Missionary congregations' archives. Through such an analysis, the regulations of mixed intimacies collected in the archives are juxtaposed with the social changes that influenced and were influenced by the policing of intimacy in the Libyan colonial context. The main finding of this research is that Italian colonial administrators regulated mixed intimacies throughout their colonial presence in Libya to establish the category of whiteness on the settler population while racializing Libyans as Others. In particular, this research found that the racialization of the colonial Other through the regulation of mixed intimacies was a significant factor that allowed a modern, white, European subjectivity to emerge and represent itself as a signifier of Italian identity in the empire. Regulating mixed intimacies coincided with keeping control of categorization processes that affected both colonizing and colonized societies, therefore representing an untapped resource in understanding the historical production of racial categories in the Italian colonial context.

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Within and outside the nation: former colonial subjects in post-war Italy

Cited by 16 publications

References 15 publications

Introduction: Gender and work in twentieth-century Italy: new approaches

Introduction: Gender and work in twentieth-century Italy: new approaches

‘We Were all Italian!’: The construction of a ‘sense of Italianness’ among Jews from Libya (1920s–1960s)

Building the Intimate Boundaries of the Nation

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