Censorship and Literature in Fascist Italy

Censorship and Literature in Fascist Italy
Author: Guido Bonsaver
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0802094961

The history of totalitarian states bears witness to the fact that literature and print media can be manipulated and made into vehicles of mass deception. Censorship and Literature in Fascist Italy is the first comprehensive account of how the Fascists attempted to control Italy's literary production. Guido Bonsaver looks at how the country's major publishing houses and individual authors responded to the new cultural directives imposed by the Fascists. Throughout his study, Bonsaver uses rare and previously unexamined materials to shed light on important episodes in Italy's literary history, such as relationships between the regime and particular publishers, as well as individual cases involving renowned writers like Moravia, Da Verona, and Vittorini. Censorship and Literature in Fascist Italy charts the development of Fascist censorship laws and practices, including the creation of the Ministry of Popular Culture and the anti-Semitic crack-down of the late 1930s. Examining the breadth and scope of censorship in Fascist Italy, from Mussolini's role as 'prime censor' to the specific experiences of female writers, this is a fascinating look at the vulnerability of culture under a dictatorship.

Culture, Censorship and the State in Twentieth-century Italy

Culture, Censorship and the State in Twentieth-century Italy
Author: Guido Bonsaver
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN:

Recent work on the cultural history of modern Italy has radically challenged received opinion about the relationship of state and culture during the twentieth century. In this rich interdisciplinary book the complex interactions and negotiations of control arising from this state-culture connection are elucidated by way of case studies of major authors, filmmakers and artists and their encounters with censorship, patronage and other forms of direct state intervention; analytical surveys of different periods, media and culture industries; and through an examination of such key issues as Fascist censorship, the Resistance and its imprint in the collective memory, the introduction of television in the 1950s, and 1970's terrorism.

Culture, Censorship and the State in Twentieth-century Italy

Culture, Censorship and the State in Twentieth-century Italy
Author: Guido Bonsaver
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2024-11-01
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1040289282

This book brings together literary critics, political historians, historians of literature, cinema and theatre and cultural sociologists, to elucidate a fundamental area of enquiry into modern Italian history: the nature and scope of relations between the state and the cultural sphere.

The Oxford Handbook of Fascism

The Oxford Handbook of Fascism
Author: R. J. B. Bosworth
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780199594788

The essays in this Handbook, written by an international team of distinguished scholars, combine to explore the way in which fascism is understood by contemporary scholarship, as well as pointing to areas of continuing dispute and discussion. From a focus on Italy as, chronologically at least, the 'first Fascist nation', the contributors cover a wide range of countries, from Nazi Germany and the comparison with Soviet Communism to fascism in Yugoslavia and its successor states. The book also examines the roots of fascism before 1914 and its survival, whether in practice or in memory, after 1945. The analysis looks at both fascist ideas and practice, and at the often uneasy relationship between the two. The book is not designed to provide any final answers to the fascist problem and no quick definition emerges from its pages. Readers will rather find there historical debate. On appropriate occasions, the authors disagree with each other and have not been forced into any artificial 'consensus', offering readers the chance to engage with the debates over a phenomenon that, more than any other single factor, led humankind into the catastrophe of the Second World War.

The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy

The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy
Author: Joseph R. Hacker
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2011-08-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 081220509X

The rise of printing had major effects on culture and society in the early modern period, and the presence of this new technology—and the relatively rapid embrace of it among early modern Jews—certainly had an effect on many aspects of Jewish culture. One major change that print seems to have brought to the Jewish communities of Christian Europe, particularly in Italy, was greater interaction between Jews and Christians in the production and dissemination of books. Starting in the early sixteenth century, the locus of production for Jewish books in many places in Italy was in Christian-owned print shops, with Jews and Christians collaborating on the editorial and technical processes of book production. As this Jewish-Christian collaboration often took place under conditions of control by Christians (for example, the involvement of Christian typesetters and printers, expurgation and censorship of Hebrew texts, and state control of Hebrew printing), its study opens up an important set of questions about the role that Christians played in shaping Jewish culture. Presenting new research by an international group of scholars, this book represents a step toward a fuller understanding of Jewish book history. Individual essays focus on a range of issues related to the production and dissemination of Hebrew books as well as their audiences. Topics include the activities of scribes and printers, the creation of new types of literature and the transformation of canonical works in the era of print, the external and internal censorship of Hebrew books, and the reading interests of Jews. An introduction summarizes the state of scholarship in the field and offers an overview of the transition from manuscript to print in this period.

National Cultures and Foreign Narratives in Italy, 1903–1943

National Cultures and Foreign Narratives in Italy, 1903–1943
Author: Francesca Billiani
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-11-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3030541509

National Cultures and Foreign Narratives charts the pathways through which foreign literature in translation has arrived in Italy during the first half of the twentieth century. To show the contribution translations made to shaping an Italian national culture, it draws on a wealth of archival material made available in English for the first time.

Censorship in Fascist Italy, 1922-43

Censorship in Fascist Italy, 1922-43
Author: G. Talbot
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2007-06-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0230222854

This is the first comprehensive account of the diversity and complexity of censorship practices in Italy under the Fascist dictatorship. Through archival material it shows how practices of censorship were used to effect regime change, to measure and to shape public opinion, behaviour and attitudes in the twenty years of Mussolini's dictatorship.

Curating Fascism

Curating Fascism
Author: Sharon Hecker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2022-11-17
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1350229482

On the centenary of the fascist party's ascent to power in Italy, Curating Fascism examines the ways in which exhibitions organized from the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime to the present day have shaped collective memory, historical narratives, and political discourse around the Italian ventennio. It charts how shows on fascism have evolved since the postwar period in Italy, explores representations of Italian fascism in exhibitions across the world, and highlights blindspots in art and cultural history, as well as in exhibition practices. Featuring contributions from an international group of art, architectural, design, and cultural historians, as well as journalists and curators, this book treats fascism as both a historical moment and as a major paradigm through which critics, curators, and the public at large have defined the present moment since World War II. It interweaves historical perspectives, critical theory, and direct accounts of exhibitions from the people who conceived them or responded to them most significantly in order to examine the main curatorial strategies, cultural relevance, and political responsibility of art exhibitions focusing on the Fascist period. Through close analysis, the chapter authors unpack the multifaceted specificity of art shows, including architecture and exhibition design; curatorial choices and institutional history; cultural diplomacy and political history; theories of viewership; and constructed collective memory, to evaluate current curatorial practice. In offering fresh new perspectives on the historiography, collective memory, and understanding of fascist art and culture from a contemporary standpoint, Curating Fascism sheds light on the complex exhibition history of Italian fascism not just within Italy but in such countries as the USA, the UK, Germany, and Brazil. It also presents an innovative approach to the growing field of exhibition theory by bringing contributions from curators and exhibition historians, who critically reflect upon curatorial strategies with respect to the delicate subject of fascism and fascist art, into dialogue with scholars of Italian studies and art historians. In doing so, the book addresses the physical and cultural legacy of fascism in the context of the current historical moment.

Photographing Mussolini

Photographing Mussolini
Author: Alessandra Antola Swan
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 3030565068

This pioneering book offers the first account of the work of the photographers, both official and freelance, who contributed to the forging of Mussolini's image. It departs from the practice of using photographs purely for illustration and places them instead at the centre of the analysis. Throughout the 1930s photographs of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini were chosen with much care by the regime. They were deployed to highlight those physical traits - the piercing eyes, protruding jaw, shaved head - that were meant to evoke the Duce's strength, determination and innate sense of leadership in the mind of his contemporaries. The chapters in this volume explore the photographic image in the socio-political context of the time and shows how it was a significant contributor to the development of Italian mass culture between the two world wars.

The Frightful Stage

The Frightful Stage
Author: Robert Justin Goldstein
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2009-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1845458990

In nineteenth-century Europe the ruling elites viewed the theater as a form of communication which had enormous importance. The theater provided the most significant form of mass entertainment and was the only arena aside from the church in which regular mass gatherings were possible. Therefore, drama censorship occupied a great deal of the ruling class’s time and energy, with a particularly focus on proposed scripts that potentially threatened the existing political, legal, and social order. This volume provides the first comprehensive examination of nineteenth-century political theater censorship at a time, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, when the European population was becoming increasingly politically active.