'Roman' nation: Racializing Italians (1903--1912)
Item
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Title
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'Roman' nation: Racializing Italians (1903--1912)
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:b8378a5881da:10566
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identifier
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10902
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Creator
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Colabianchi, Italia,
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Contributor
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Marta Petrusewicz
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Date
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2010
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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European history | Italy | Nationalism | Racism
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Abstract
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The existing literature on Italian racism has failed to analyze the thought of the right-wing intellectuals who gave life to the nationalist movement in the early 20th century. Current research provides only a fragmentary and episodic narration of the nationalist racial thought, and fails to insert its contradictions and complexities into the development of the nationalist ideology. The reluctance to apply a discursive methodology has been the primary cause of the failure of the existing historiography to recognize the nationalist racial discourse. This dissertation intends to fill that void by analyzing the writings of Enrico Corradini, Mario Morasso, Giuseppe Prezzolini, Giovanni Papini and other prominent nationalists.;In this study, I argue that there is an important racial component in the early 20th century nationalist thought, and that this component emerges through the analysis of racial language, tropes, stereotypes, and metaphors. My thesis is that the nationalist imperialistic agenda determined their racial discourse. The nationalists considered the possession of a colonial empire as a necessary and unmistakable mark of the superiority of a nation on an international scale. The goal of establishing an Italian Empire was justified discursively with racial imagery and recurrent themes, above all that of "romanita'". In the nationalist imperialistic narrative, the Italians possessed certain qualities that were quintessential to the Italian race, and these qualities both enabled and entitled them to conquer and maintain a colonial empire.;The discursive construction of the Italian race had to take into account the array of racial theories and beliefs that argued the inferiority of the Italian vis-a-vis the Nordic race. Against the theories that postulated the superiority of the Nordic man, the Italian nationalists tapped into an imagined Roman past, not so much negating the existing stereotypes but reinventing existing narratives. The colonial war absolved, in the nationalist narrative, the crucial function of being a catalyst for a surge in patriotism and racial pride, which would awaken the dormant racial qualities of the Italian population and clarify who was a member of the national community and who was excluded.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
