Abstract
When Italy surrendered to the Allies in 1943, Giacomo Matteotti’s memory burst back into public space after almost twenty years of clandestine commemoration. This article focuses on the uses of Matteotti’s memory during the Resistance and the transition to a new democratic Republic. It argues that Matteotti was both Italian and reformist, not revolutionary, and thus his memory appealed to partisans as a symbol of national anti-Fascism and to the Allies because he represented parliamentary democracy. The article begins by establishing the qualities of Matteotti’s commemoration after his death in 1924, before examining the daily uses of that memory by those involved in Italy’s fight for liberation from 1943. Finally, it identifies the transposition of the language of sacrifice used to remember Matteotti onto the Italian people by representatives of Italy’s new democratic institutions during the construction of the Republic, representing Italians as victims, rather than perpetrators, of Fascism.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 451-466 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Italian Studies |
| Volume | 78 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 6 Sept 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 6 Sept 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This article is based on my doctoral research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the South, West and Wales Doctoral Partnership. I am grateful to the three anonymous reviewers of this article for the depth and generosity of their feedback, which has helped me to improve this work. Thanks are also due to my friends and colleagues, Darius Wainwright and Lorenzo Costaguta, for commenting on a draft.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords
- Memory
- Antifascism
- Giacomo Matteotti
- Resistance
- World War II
- fascism