Abstract
Scholars have typically characterized Italy’s decolonization as abrupt and leaving relatively little trace in the peninsula either at the time or subsequently. This chapter challenges such interpretations by demonstrating the deeply felt impacts of repatriation by Italian settlers to the metropole at the time of events and the continued, if selective, visibility of these experiences in public debates during subsequent decades. In particular, the analysis examines films and novels, arenas for which most scholars posit an explicit silence about imperial defeat and repatriation that instead become displaced onto other themes. Re-reading such cultural artifacts raises the possibility of what Michael Rothberg has deemed the work of multidirectional and cross-referencing memories. At the same time, however, the analysis acknowledges the limited success of repatriated settlers in producing collective narratives of their experience, with separate circuits of memory and commemoration that continue to remain set apart from broader popular culture accounts of decolonization.
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Notes
- 1.
Comparative assessments of colonialism and empire often omit modern Italy altogether, though whether for its perceived oddness or insignificance is unclear.
- 2.
Noting the distinctiveness of Italy’s “state-driven settler colonies,” Ertola has pointedly asked, “Were they ‘settler colonies’ or just ‘colonies with settlers’?” (Ertola 2017: 340).
- 3.
On the Libyan case, see Donati (2013: 191).
- 4.
Ethiopia proved an exception, as Emperor Haile Selassie returned to power there in May 1941.
- 5.
On the entanglement of the colonial question with that of Venezia Giulia, see Rossi (1979).
- 6.
See, for example, Mémorandum présenté par le Comité des réfugiés de la Libye, de l’Erythrée et de la Somalie sur la question des Colonies Italiennes/Memorandum presented by the Committee of the refugees from Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia on the Italian Colonial Question. Contained in Archivio Storico Diplomatico Ministero degli Affari Esteri (ASDMAE) Affari Politici (AP) 1946–1950 Italia b. 53, fasc. 1. See also ASDMAE AP 1946–1950 Italia Ex Possedimenti Parte Generale b. 2, Feliciano Bianchi to De Gasperi, June 1, 1946.
- 7.
ASDMAE AP 1946–1950 Italia Ex Possedimenti Parte Generale, b. 4, “Promemoria sulla questione delle colonie,” June 19, 1945.
- 8.
On the specific efforts by Cyrenaican refugees during and after the UN negotiations, see Ballinger (2018).
- 9.
ASDMAE AP 1946–1950 Ex Possedimenti Libia b. 10, April 10, 1946.
- 10.
ASDMAE AP 1946–1950 Italia Ex Possedimenti Libia b. 10, Memorandum, November 21, 1945.
- 11.
Archivio Storico (AS) Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale (INPS) b. 130, fasc. 515, Raccomandata of February 15, 1957.
- 12.
AS INPS b. 62, fasc. 259, Armando Maugini, “Relazione sulla colonizzazione contadina della Tripolitania,” May 1953, 17.
- 13.
ASDMAE AP 1950–1957 Libia b. 830, “Ricoveri in centri di raccolta di rimpatriandi dall’Africa,” September 18, 1951, 1–2.
- 14.
Also refer to ASDMAE AP 1946–1950 Albania b. 10, “Nota Verbale,” March 11, 1946.
- 15.
Ennio Flaiano’s novel Tempo di Uccidere (1975 [1947]) remains a notable exception.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
For more on such “extruded histories,” see Ballinger (2012).
- 19.
Trattato Italia-Libia—Approvato dalla Camera tra le proteste il ‘risarcimento per danni coloniali.’ www.magdiallam.it/node/9173. On efforts at inserting a clause about indemnities for Italian properties into the Treaty, refer to: http://www.informazione.it/c/c6a598d2-612b-4664-84b7-0b1103cd4faf/Italia-Libia-il-consiglio-comunale-di-Roma-impegna-il-sindaco-Alemanno (accessed February 20, 2009).
- 20.
“Giovanna Ortu, espulsa dalla Libia nel 1970: ‘Gli italiani sulla nave mi fanno rivivere il dramma’.” Rai News. http://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/articoli/Giovanna-Ortu-espulsa-dalla-Libia-nel-1970-Gli-italiani-sulla-nave-mi-fanno-rivivere-tutto-410653b0-9731-4f42-8b9a-642953e9c067.html (accessed May 1, 2018).
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Ballinger, P. (2020). Italian Decolonization: Multidirectional Migrations, Multidirectional Memories. In: Eyerman, R., Sciortino, G. (eds) The Cultural Trauma of Decolonization. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27025-4_2
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