Images of Modern Italy - MIDTERM 1 REVIEW

1. When did the following events occur?

a. A parliament assembled in Turin proclaimed Vittorio Emanuele II King of Italy. - 1861

b. Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. - 1871

c. Benito Mussolini launched the Fasci di combattimento (Combat Leagues). - 1919

d. The Fascist movement (Fasci di combattimento) became a party, the Partito Nazionale

Fascista (National Fascist Party). - 1921

e. Fascists marched on Rome. - 1922

f. Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was assassinated. - 1924

g. Mussolini and Cardinal Gasparri signed the Patti Lateranensi (Lateran Pacts). - 1929

h. Mussolini announced the founding of the Empire. - 1936

i. Racial Laws were promulgated. - 1938

j. Mussolini and Hitler signed the Pact of Steel. - 1939

k. Italy entered World War II on the Axis side. - 1940

l. Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. - 1943

2. Give a brief definition/characterization of the following:

a. Risorgimento - The process that led to the unification of Italy. The expedition of the thousand was a march to Sicily.

b. Giuseppe Garibaldi - Icon of the unification to unify Rome. Member of secret societies promoting national unity. Led the expedition of the thousand.

c. Squadristi (Black Shirts) - Fascist group started as a parliamentary squad. Goals were to fight socialism, restoring order, demanded Mussolini to be named prime minister.

d. Resistance - Confederation forces fighting against Nazi’s and Italian Social Republic occupying Italy. They were fighting two types of war (Nazis and Italian fascists).

3. What were the most fundamental principles and values celebrated by fascism? - Authoritative leaders, collectivism, hierarchy, inequality

4. What strategies did the Fascist regime use to orchestrate consensus? - Intimidation, propaganda, alliances

5. What major factors contributed to the erosion of support for the Fascist regime? - Political isolation, non-official army gangs, Germany occupying northern Italy,

6. Consider the images of the Risorgimento that are offered by Alessandro Blasetti’s 1860 (1933) and Luchino Visconti’s Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963) in the light of Duggan’s analysis. How do these films interpret the struggle for the unification of Italy? - Garibaldi was a proto-Fascist hero, talks about Italian unification, Fascist try to make it look like one people

7. Reflect on the various images of fascism conveyed by Bernardo Bertolucci’s Novecento (1900,1976), Ettore Scola’s Una giornata particolare (A Special Day, 1977), and Federico Fellini’s Amarcord (1973). What different moments and aspects of Fascism’s history do they present? - The films all approach fascism differently, Novecento shows violence in fascism, Una Giornata Particolare shows everyday oppression and gender roles, Amarcord shows the cultural atmosphere.

8. In “Imagined Italies,” John Dickie argues that Roberto Rossellini’s Roma città aperta (Open City, 1945) presents an idea of nation and community built on the values of the struggle against Fascism and the German occupation. Do you agree? What image of the Resistance emerges from this film? Compare it with the one created by the Taviani brothers’ later film, La notte di San Lorenzo (The Night of the Shooting Stars, 1982). - The two films have major differences in how they portray historical moments, tone, resistance, community, and purpose. Roma Citta Aperta is straighter forward while La Notte Di San Lorenzo is more questionable on how they portray the events of post liberation.

9. What interpretation of the Resistance does Italo Calvino’s short story “Uno dei tre è Ancora vivo” (“One of the Three is Still Alive”) offer? - This film is the most unsettling interpretations of the Resistance. The story focusses on the fearful side of the war. This resistence exposed the cruelty of fascism.