Italian Resistance Research Articles

Female Relays, Rice-Workers and flâneuse: The geo parler femme in Renata Viganò’s Work

The aim of this article was to reflect on how settings are used as narrative practices in the work of Renata Viganò, one of the most famous Italian female writers. Drawing upon Well’s concept of geo parler femme, this article examined the extent to which the setting plays a role in Viganò’s fictional works and essays. Focusing on the most common stereotypes of gendered spatiality, the intention of the analysis was to point out that at specific historical moments, such as the Italian resistance movement and the post-war years, the traditional gender assignment of spaces was no longer valid. The idea of a well distinguished ‘limit’ that separates certain places as feminine from others as masculine in time of war becomes blurred and destabilizes the traditional dichotomy of public–private spaces. The dialectic masculine–feminine places are nonexistent and often completely reversed, turning the setting into one of the main narrative practices in novels, such as L’Agnese va a morire or Una storia di ragazze, as well as in politically engaged essays dedicated to female partisans and rice-workers.

Creating a shared past: The representation of Medici–Habsburg relations in the wedding celebrations for Eleonora de Toledo and Cosimo I de’ Medici

AbstractIn the summer of 1539, an elaborate, ephemeral programme of decoration was constructed in Florence to celebrate the wedding of Cosimo I de' Medici and Eleonora Álvarez de Toledo. Through an interplay of painting, sculpture, heraldry, and classical allusions, the programme constructed a narrative of the marriage as the culmination of a history of mutual support between the Medici family and the Spanish monarchy. In so doing, this article argues, it revealed the dynamic by which the network of political alliances and exchanges that made Spanish hegemony on the Italian peninsula possible operated. The narrative re‐presented the distant and recent history of Medici–Spanish relations and re‐created Florence as a middle ground between Spanish imperialism and Italian resistance and autonomy. It revealed the way in which Spanish Habsburg hegemony in Italy relied on dialogue, accommodation, mutual reciprocity, and a creative interpretation of the past and present.

Guerra civile: experience, memory and contrasting histories of the Resistance in Italy

This article examines the disagreement between two partisans turned historians, Nuto Revelli and Claudio Pavone, on the legitimacy of the term ‘civil war’ to describe the Italian Resistance of 1943–1945. ‘Civil war’ is a controversial term in Italian and European discussions of World War II. Accordingly, ‘civil war’ provokes a study of the intersection of ideology and ethics, experiential memory and history in postwar Europe. But why should Revelli and Pavone, two men who had been on the same side during the Resistance, see things so differently? This article demonstrates that each historian’s experience before and during World War II shaped their participation in the Resistance and their subsequent representation of it. Consequently, their divergent experiences offer an explanation as to why Pavone argues that the Resistance was a civil war and Revelli argues that it was not, without relativizing in political and ethical analysis.

Slovak Troops in Italy During Second Word War

Abstract This article deals with activities of Slovak military troops in Italy during the World War II in the period from October 1943 to the end of war. Article describes the construction of field fortifications on the German defensive lines in central and northern Italy. As well it describes the appearance of resistance to the alliance with Nazi Germany, the involvement of the Slovaks in Italian resistance and the culmination of the fight against Nazism. The resulting manifestation was the creation of the 1st Czechoslovak division in Italy, which fought against German troops alongside the Allies at the end of the war.

Italian Resistance movement (1943-45) and its memoirs in the Dewey Decimal Classification

This article defines the main features of the Italian Resistance, and their representation in the conceptual scheme of DDC, and aims to give them a more precise classification as there is an ever-growing literary warrant. It also examines personal accounts relating to the Italian Resistance: diaries, letters, papers and memories. Since the post-war period, these unique and important documents have become the object of historical research and extensive publication.

«Trasformare la guerra imperialista in guerra civile». Il Partito comunista internazionalista tra conflitto mondiale e Resistenza

In this paper the focus is about Partito Comunista Internazionalista, specially in the period of the Second World War and the italian Resistance. PcInt took its origins from the left wing of Partito Comunista d’Italia. It was the only one communist party really antistalinist: it was different between Partito Comunista Italiano and the others dissident communist movements. Internationalists thought that working class hasn’t to partecipate to the imperialistic war, but try to change it in civil war (as Lenin’s thought). In this situation, they had to fight against fascism but also against stalinism.

A Civil War: A History of the Italian Resistance, by Claudio Pavone

A Civil War: A History of the Italian Resistance, by Claudio Pavone

Nonostante tutto. Insegnare la Resistenza, tra didattica e uso pubblico della storia

The article deals with the teaching of the Italian Resistance in relation to more general notions such as the cultural memory of WWII, the public use of history, and the attitude of students towards contemporary history. Also addressed are the themes of postantifascism and of good citizenship skills. The article also summarizes the related, current historiographical debate and presents teaching projects developed by the Istituto piemontese per la storia della Resistenza. These projects are aimed at preserving and increasing public awareness of a vast collection of documents, media, and research on local history.

Feminist tales of teaching and resistance: reimagining gender in early childhood education (Reggio Emilia, Italy)

ABSTRACTThis article investigates whether the memories of women’s movements that grew out of the Italian Resistance to the Nazi-Fascist Regime during the Second World War have left any legacy to women teachers in early childhood education. The article focuses on the case of internationally renowned and high-quality schools for young children, the municipal schools of a northern Italian town called Reggio Emilia. In contrast to much of the literature on gender and early childhood education, this paper reveals that many women teachers in these schools think of themselves as agents of social change, and that this is tied to their memories of the Italian Resistance.

Challenging Parties and Anti-Fascism in the Name of Democracy: The Fronte dell'Uomo Qualunque and its Impact on Italy's Republic

AbstractThis article studies the political ideology of the Italian political movement Fronte dell'Uomo Qualunque in the light of the problems of party democracy in Italy. The movement existed only for a few years in the aftermath of the Second World War, but the impact of its ideology on post-war Italy was large. The article argues that the party's ideology should be studied beyond the anti-fascist–fascist divide and that it provides a window onto the contestation of party politics in republican Italy. It contextualises the movement in the political transition from fascism to republic and highlights key elements of the Front's ideology. The article then proceeds to demonstrate how the movement distinguished itself from the parties of the Italian resistance and advocated a radical break with the way in which the relationship between the Italian state and citizens had been practiced through subsequent regimes. The way in which the movement aimed to highlight the alleged similarities between the fascist and republican political order, and its own claim to democratic legitimacy, constitute a distinct political tradition which resurfaced in the political crisis of the 1990s.

A Civil War: A History of the Italian Resistance. By Claudio Pavone. Translated by Peter Levy with the assistance of David Broder. Edited by Stanislao Pugliese.London: Verso Books, 2013. Pp. xxiv+744. $55.00.

<i>A Civil War: A History of the Italian Resistance</i>. By Claudio Pavone. Translated by Peter Levy with the assistance of David Broder. Edited by Stanislao Pugliese.London: Verso Books, 2013. Pp. xxiv+744. $55.00.

The Convitti Scuola della Rinascita (the Boarding Schools of Rebirth): an innovative pedagogy for democracy in post-war Italy (1945–1955)

In 1945, Italian society was in crisis. Twenty years of fascism and the aerial bombing and military offensives of the Second World War had left the civilian population suffering and the nation in need of reinvention. In this difficult context, certain anti-fascist intellectuals devised the interesting pedagogical experiment of the 11 Convitti Scuola della Rinascita (Boarding Schools of Rebirth) for adult learners, mainly those who had been partisans engaged in the Italian resistance during the war. This article reconstructs the birth of the Convitti within the general framework of education, war and reconstruction. It investigates the arduous search for and development of an adult education curriculum – outside the traditional models – suited to the ethical and political reconstruction of students. Finally, it situates the Convitti and their demise amidst the dilemmas that affected both the ruling classes and the teachers called to redefine their role in a newly democratic Italy.

Office of Strategic Services versus Special Operations Executive: Competition for the Italian Resistance, 1943–1945

This article explores the relationship between the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the Italian campaign during World War II. Drawing on recently declassified records, the article analyzes three issues that prevented satisfactory coordination between the two agencies and the impact those issues had on the effectiveness of the Allied military support given to the partisan movements: (1) the U.S. government's determination to maintain the independence of its agencies; (2) the inability of the Armed Forces Headquarters to impose its will on the reluctant subordinate levels of command; and (3) the relatively low priority given to the Italian resistance at the beginning of the campaign. The article contributes to recent studies on OSS and SOE liaisons and sheds additional light on an important turning point in the history of their relations.

Indignation, Ideologies, and Armed Mobilization: Civil War in Italy, 1943–45

Abstract Ideas shape human behavior in many circumstances, including those involving political violence. Yet they have usually been underplayed in studies of the causes of armed mobilization. Likewise, emotions have been overlooked in most analyses of intrastate conflict. A mixed-methods analysis of Italian resistance during the Fascist regime and the Nazi occupation (1943–45) provides the opportunity to theorize and analyze empirical evidence on the role of indignation and radical ideologies in the process of armed mobilization. These nonmaterial factors play a crucial role in the chain that leads to armed collective action. Indignation is a push factor that moves individuals away from accepting the status quo. Radical ideologies act as pull factors that provide a new set of strategies against the incumbent. More specifically, detachment caused by an emotional event disconnects the individual from acceptance of the current state of social relations, and individuals move away from the status quo. Ideologies communicated by political entrepreneurs help to rationalize the emotional shift and elaborate alternative worldviews (disenchantment), as well as possibilities for action. Finally, a radical ideological framework emphasizes normative values and the conduct of action through the “anchoring” mechanism, which can be understood as a pull factor attracting individuals to a new status.

IMAR: An Interactive Web-Based Application for Mapping Herbicide Resistant Weeds.

Herbicides are the major weed control tool in most cropping systems worldwide. However, the high reliance on herbicides has led to environmental issues as well as to the evolution of herbicide-resistant biotypes. Resistance is a major concern in modern agriculture and early detection of resistant biotypes is therefore crucial for its management and prevention. In this context, a timely update of resistance biotypes distribution is fundamental to devise and implement efficient resistance management strategies. Here we present an innovative web-based application called iMAR (interactive MApping of Resistance) for the mapping of herbicide resistant biotypes. It is based on open source software tools and translates into maps the data reported in the GIRE (Italian herbicide resistance working group) database of herbicide resistance at national level. iMAR allows an automatic, easy and cost-effective updating of the maps a nd provides two different systems, “static” and “dynamic”. In the first one, the user choices are guided by a hierarchical tree menu, whereas the latter is more flexible and includes a multiple choice criteria (type of resistance, weed species, region, cropping systems) that permits customized maps to be created. The generated information can be useful to various stakeholders who are involved in weed resistance management: farmers, advisors, national and local decision makers as well as the agrochemical industry. iMAR is freely available, and the system has the potential to handle large datasets and to be used for other purposes with geographical implications, such as the mapping of invasive plants or pests.

The Fascist Party and the Problem of Popular Opinion in the Provinces

As a non-specialist in the historiography of Fascism and Nazism, I enter this discussion with trepidation. Viewed from the outside, antagonism and rigidity have long characterised historical debate about the causes, nature and consequences of both regimes, although it is clear (and as the other contributions published here have pointed out) that some of this fierceness has attenuated of late with the rise of a new generation of historians. I don't propose to go over the various points of disagreement about fascist Italy – the problem of popular ‘consensus’ for the regime, the reasons for collective ‘amnesia’ after the fall of the regime, and the myth of ‘Italians as good people’ (Italiani brava gente) – as these have already been discussed by Bernhard in his review and in the contributions by Giulia Albanese and Roberta Pergher. Nor will I enter into related debates about the Italian Resistance, the issue of Italian war crimes and the broader controversy about ‘divided memory’ in post-war Italy, although these questions have also generated a significant literature in recent years. Instead I want simply to re-visit Paul Corner's The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy and to propose a rather different interpretation than the one offered by Patrick Bernhard.

The Enemy as Confounding Other: Interpersonal Perception and Displacement in Italian Memories of the Resistance and German Occupation of 1943–1945

Much has been written about the legacies of the Italian Resistance during the Second World War, usually based on oral accounts and memoirs of the protagonists of the events- typically produced by the winning side. Meanwhile, the emerging fields of conflict and post-conflict anthropology are opening up the epistemological horizons of a war's impact on person, place and society. Despite much promise, in the case of the Italian civil war and German occupation of 1943–1945, notions of the “enemy” have been accepted unproblematically. Questions of how the enemy was constructed, situated and perceived have not been asked. And yet the Resistance was a highly localized and “visceral” conflict where affective ties to the land were stronger than any allegiance to an abstract “Fatherland” appropriated by Fascism. In this paper, I interrogate mechanisms of perception, othering and exclusion in order to illuminate a grassroots experience of Resistance and occupation.

Heroes, spectators, traitors. Representations of the Italian resistance movement in selected filmography

Heroes, spectators, traitors. Representations of the Italian resistance movement in selected filmography

Bella ciao, ovvero le pansane di un "controstorico"

In his latest book, Giampaolo Pansa brings his conflict against the Italian Resistance to a new level: in a very unrefined lombrosian analysis, communist partisans are always depicted as ugly, neurotics, even badly-dressed, while the non-communist partisans (the good ones, in Pansa’s view) are commonly good-looking, generous, handsome. The central thesis is unchanged: the italian communist party craved for the nazi retaliations, and deliberately tried to cause them, so the hatred could grow, pushing the country towards a revolution. Proof supplied? Zero. Documentary evidence shown? None. 422 pages, filled with maybe, it would appear, someone tells another story, without a single real evidence brought to our attention.

The myth of the Italian Resistance Movement (1943-1945)

The myth of the Italian Resistance Movement (1943-1945)