Aesthetic and Anthropological Representations as Evidence of Racism: from Italian Unification (1861) to the Fall of Fascism (1943)

ended

This research project entitled Aesthetic and Anthropological Representations as Evidence of Racism: from Italian Unification (1861) to the Fall of Fascism (1943) (ARER) aims to study the role of visual and material culture in the formation of an African racial identity during Italy’s national unification and its colonial conquests up to the fall of fascism. Italian colonialism, later than that of its French and English neighbours, coincided with the constitution of the nation-state, and it was imperative that its first campaigns, exclusively turned towards Africa, reinforce patriotic sentiment and inscribe Italy among the colonial powers. The figure of the Italian was thus invented progressively by way of contrast to African populations, and through the exaltation of its Roman and Etruscan origins, in order to legitimate its vocation to conquer and ‘civilize’ the world. Situated at the crossroads of art, history and anthropology, the theoretical results of my study have for an ambition to help question the contemporary resurgence of racism and xenophobia in a Europe affected by a migration crisis and the rise of populism.