Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat G59.2972, G57.1981. Fall 2006 Office and

1
Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat
G59.2972, G57.1981. Fall 2006
Office and Office Hours: Casa Italiana, T and W 2-3 or by appt
vmail: 212.998.8731; email: [email protected]
ITALIAN COLONIALISM
An exploration of Italian colonialism from the late 19th century through the end of
empire. Through readings of travel literature, films, and historical works, we address the
meaning of colonialism within Italian history and culture, colonial racial policies and
gender identities, and the legacies of colonialism in Italy and in its former colonies.
Course materials; Patrizia Palumbo, ed. A Place in the Sun: Africa in Italian Colonial
Culture from Post-Unification to the Present (Berkeley, 2003), can be purchased at the
NYU Book Center and consulted on reserve in Bobst Library. All other course readings
are contained in a customized reader, “Italian Colonialism,” which can be purchased from
Advanced Copy Center on La Guardia between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets (3381001). Complete citations for all readings are given on the last page of the syllabus.
All LUCE newsreels and documentaries can be accessed at www.luce.it: go to “archivio
storico” then search (“cerca”) by typing in the number of the film (given in the syllabus)
and then “invia ricerca”. Then scroll to the title (in syllabus) and click on it, then choose
between modem, dsl and broadband speeds.
Course grade: Final seminar paper, 80%; class participation, 20%. Seminar papers may
be written in either English or Italian and from any disciplinary perspective. Students
must meet with me to discuss their paper topics. Class participation is judged by your
attention during the seminar, your comments on the texts, and your interventions in class
debates. Since weekly readings are often divided up among students, the active
participation of everyone is vital for the success of the seminar.
SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND READINGS
*indicates readings to be divided among students
Sept 5
Introduction
Sept 12
Historiographies/ Theories
Tripodi, “An Historical Perspective on Italian Colonialism”
(not for discussion; for reference throughout the semester)
Labanca, “Studies and Research on Fascist Colonialism,”
in Palumbo
Agnew, “The Myth of Backward Italy in Modern Europe”
Stoler and Cooper, “Between Metropole and Colony”
Sept 19
Contexts: Liberal Italy
*Choate, “Demographic Colonialism”
*Verdicchio, “The Preclusion of Postcolonial Discourse in Southern Italy”
2
Spackman, Fascist Virilities, 49-66
Marinetti, Mafarka the Futurist/Mafarka il futurista, chapter 1
Sept 26
East Africa and Libya in the Liberal Period
*Segre, Fourth Shore, 20-56
*Larebo, The Building of an Empire, 1-27
Barrera, “The Construction of Racial Hierarchies” in Palumbo
Triulzi, “Adwa: From Monument to Document”
Documentario LUCE: L’Eritrea. Colonia primogenita d’Italia
Film: Adwa (Haile Garama, 1999)
Oct 3
Libya as Totalitarian Laboratory?
Guest speaker: Mia Fuller
Ahmida, The Making of Modern Libya, 1-9, 135-144
Atkinson, “Nomadic Strategies and Colonial Governance”
Fuller, “"Oases of Ambiguity"
Documentario LUCE: Conoscere le colonie: Ghat (1933);
Giornale LUCE B1061, Tobruk. Il Duce in Libia (1937); and
LUCE, Cronache dell’Impero CI005 “Addis Abeba”
Oct 10
Contexts: Fascist Italy
Pinkus, “Shades of Black in Advertising and Popular Culture”
*Ben-Ghiat, Fascist Modernities, 123-140.
*Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle, 148-182.
Palumbo, “Orphans for the Empire” in Palumbo
Giornali LUCE A0886 and A0887, Mostra internazionale d’arte coloniale
(Roma, 1931)
Oct 17
The Occupation of Ethiopia
Sbacchi, “Poison Gas and Atrocities in the Italo-Ethiopian War”
Bekerie, “African Americans and the Italo-Ethiopian War”
Mussolini, “Dopo lo scontro di Ual-Ual,” and “Saluto ai legionari
dell’Africa Orientale”
D’Annunzio, “Al legionario volontario per la Guerra d’Africa”
Documentario LUCE: Cronache dell’Impero CI001, Governo dei Galla e
Sidamo. Gambela (1937)
Oct 24
Race and Governance: the Case of Ethiopia
Pankhurst, “Fascist Racial Policies in Ethiopia”
Barrera, “Mussolini’s Colonial Race Laws…”
Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized, 45-76
Oct 31
Men and Women in the Colonies
Bellassai, “The masculine mystique”
*Pickering-Iazzi, “Mass-Mediated Fantasies” in Palumbo
3
*Barrera, “Patrilinearity, Race, and Identity”
Tobino, Il deserto della Libya/The Deserts of Libya, 155-169, 206-220
Giornale Luce B1371 Campeggio pre-coloniale (1938)
Nov 7
Colonialism and Representation: Travel Writing
Pratt, “Imperial Eyes,” introduction
Lombardi-Diop, “Pioneering Female Modernity”
Polezzi, “Aristocrats, Geographers, Reporters…”
Denti di Pirjano, A Cure for Serpents, chapters 2 and 7
Nov 14
Colonialism and Representation: Cinema
Ben-Ghiat, “The Italian Colonial Cinema”
Bertellini, “Colonial Autism,” in Palumbo (pp.255-267 only)
Boggio, “Black Shirts/Black Skins” in Palumbo
Giornale LUCE B0907 Lavorazioni del film Lo squadrone Bianco (1936)
Film: Lo squadrone bianco (Genina, 1936)
Nov 21
The Case of Greece
Doumanis, Myth and Memory, 1-13, 125-197
Santarelli, “Muted Violence: War Crimes in Occupied Greece”
Giornale LUCE B0329 Rodi. Splendori di civiltà italica…”
Film: Mediterraneo (Salvatores, 1991)
Nov 28
The End of Empire
Segre, Fourth Shore, 161-177
Borrusio, Il mito infranto, 69-93
Tobino, The Deserts of Libya, 221-236, 290-301
Giornali LUCE C0140 Africa settentrionale; C0221 Africa settentrionale
Dec 5
Legacies of Colonialism: Africa
Jerary, “Damages caused by the Italian Fascist Colonization of Libya”
Anderson, “Legitimacy, Identity, and the Writing of History in Libya”
Iyob, “Madamismo and Beyond: The Construction of Eritrean Women”
Dec 12
Legacies of Colonialism: Italy
Del Boca, “Myths, Suppressions and Denials” in Palumbo
Labanca, “History and Memory of Italian Colonialism Today”
Von Henneberg, “Monuments, Public Space and the Memory of Empire”
Giornale Nuova LUCE NL 020 Un raro documento cinematografico sulla
colonizzazione italiana in Libia (shown 1946)
Settimana Incom 00073 Una tradizione che continua: il governo riceve i
libici (1947)
Seminar papers due Dec 18 in my box on 4th floor of Casa, by 5 pm.
No emailed papers will be accepted!
4
Works Listed in Syllabus
Agnew, John. “The Myth of Backward Italy in Modern Europe” in Revisioning Italy, eds.
B. Allen and M. Russo (Minneapolis, 1997), 22-42.
Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif. The Making of Modern Libya (Albany, 1994).
Anderson, Lisa. “Legitimacy, Identity, and the Writing of History in Libya,” in Statecraft
in the Middle East eds. E. Davis and N. Gavrielides (Gainsville, Fl., 1991),70-91.
Atkinson, David. “Nomadic Strategies and Colonial Governance,” in Entanglements of
Power eds. R. Paddston et al (London, 1999), 93-121.
Barrera, Giulia. “Mussolini’s Colonial Race Laws and State-Settler Relations in Africa
Orientale Italiana (1935-1941),” Journal of Modern Italian Studies (September
2003), 423-443.
------------------. “Patrilinearity, Race, and Identity in Ben-Ghiat and Fuller, eds. Italian
Colonialism (New York, 2005), 97-108.
Beckerie, A. “African Americans and the Ethiopian War,” in Revisioning Italy, eds.
Allen and Russo (Minneapolis, 1997), 116-133.
Bellassai, Sandro. “The Masculine Mystique: antimodernism and virility in fascist Italy,”
Journal of Modern Italian Studies (December 2005), 314-335.
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth. Fascist Modernities: Italy, 1922-1945 (Berkeley, 2001).
---------------------. “The Italian Colonial Cinema: Agendas and Audiences,” in Ben-Ghiat
and Fuller, eds., Italian Colonialism (New York, 2005), 179-192.
Borrusio, Paolo, ed. Il mito infranto. La fine del sogno africano negli appunti e nelle
immagini di Massimo Borrusio (Manduria, 1997).
Choate, Mark. “Demographic Colonialism: Modern Italy vol.8, no1 (2003), 65-75.
D’Annunzio, Gabriele. “Al legionario volontario per la guerra d’Africa,” in Teneo te
Africa (Rome, 1939).
Denti di Pijano, A. A Cure for Serpents (New York, 1955).
Doumanis, Nicholas. Myth and Memory in the Mediterranean . Remembering Fascism’s
Empire (New York: 1997).
Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. Fascist Spectacle (Berkeley, 1997).
Fuller, Mia. “"Oases of Ambiguity: On How Italians Did Not Practice Urban
Segregation in Tripoli," in La Libia tra Mediterraneo e mondo islamico, ed.
Federico Cresti (Milan, 2001), 163-81
Garama, Haile. Adwa (1999).
Jerary, M. “Damages Caused by the Italian Fascist Colonization of Libya,” in Ben-Ghiat
and Fuller, eds., Italian Colonialism (New York, 2005), 203-208.
Labanca, Nicola. “History and Memory of Italian Colonialism Today,” in Jacqueline
Andall and Derek Duncan, eds., Italian Colonialism (New York, 2005), 29-46.
Larebo, Haile. The Building of an Empire (Cambridge, 1994).
Lombardi-Diop, Cristina. “Pioneering Female Modernity: Fascist Women in Colonial
Africa,” in Ben-Ghiat and Fuller, eds., Italian Colonialism (New York, 2005),
145-154.
Marinetti, Filippo. Mafarka il futurista/Mafarka the Futurist (1909)
Memmi, A. The Colonizer and the Colonized (New York, 1965).
Mussolini, Benito. “Dopo lo scontro di Ual-Ual,” “Saluto ai legionari dell’Africa
Orientale,” in Mussolini, L’espansione coloniale (Rome, 1936), 161-168.
5
Pankhurst, Richard. “Fascist Racial Policies in Ethiopia 1922-1941,” Ethiopian Observer
vol. 12 (1969), 270-286.
Pinkus, K. “Shades of Black in Advertising and Popular Culture,” in Revisioning Italy,
eds. B. Allen and M Russo (Minneapolis, 1997), 134-155.
Polezzi, Loredana. “Aristocrats, Geographers, Reporters…Travelling Through ‘Italian
Africa’ in the 1930s,” in Cultural Encounters. European Travel Writing in the
1930s eds. Derek Duncan and Charles Burdett (New York, 2002), 187-204.
Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation (London, 1992)
Ruth Iyob. “Madamismo and Beyond: The Construction of Eritrean Women,” in
Ben-Ghiat and Fuller, eds., Italian Colonialism (New York, 2005), 221-232.
Salvatores, Gabriele. Mediterraneo (1991).
Santarelli, Lidia. “Muted Violence: War Crimes in Occupied Greece,” Journal of Modern
Italian Studies (September 2003), 280-299.
Sbacchi, Alberto. “Poison Gas and Atrocities in the Italo-Ethiopian War,” in Ruth
Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller, eds. Italian Colonialism (New York, 2005), 47-56.
Segre, Cesare. Fourth Shore: The Italian Colonization of Libya (Chicago: 1974).
Spackman, Barbara. Fascist Virilities (Minneapolis, 1996).
Stoler, A., and Cooper, F. “Between Metropole and Colony,” in Tensions of Empire, eds.
Stoler and Cooper (Berkeley, 1997), 1-58
Tobino, M. “The Deserts of Libya,”, in Tobino, Rigoni Stern, Biasion, The Lost Legions
(New York, 1967).
Tripodi, Paolo. The Colonial Legacy in Somalia (New York: ).
Triulzi, Alessandro. “Adwa: From Monument to Document,” Modern Italy vol.8, no.1
(2003), 95-108.
Verdicchio, P. “The Preclusion of Postcolonial Discourse in Southern Italy,” in
Revisioning Italy, eds. B Allen and M Russo (Minneapolis, 1997), 191-212.
Von Henneberg, Krystyna. “Monuments, Public Space and the Memory of Empire,”
History and Memory(spring/summer 2004), 37-85.