"Qui si parla italiano": The Italianisation of Menton, 1940-1943

This dissertation aims to explore the roots of the Italianisation process policies of Fascist Italy in Venezia Giulia, and to investigate to what extent these efforts differed from those already undertaken in the region during the liberal era before Mussolini's rise to power. It will examine government policy with regard to the South Slav minorities in Venezia Giulia under both political systems before and during Fascism in order to examine how much of the Fascist Italianisation initiative had its origins in the irredentist culture of the Italian authorities of the preceding liberal era.

/Résumé analytique June 1940: The Italian Army and the Battle of the Alps Emanuele Sica This article focuses on the " Battle of the Alps " of June 1940, which pitted the Italian Regio Esercito against the French Armée des Alpes. Fearing that an early capitulation of France to the German invasion that had begun in May would prevent Italy from sharing the spoils of victory, Mussolini ordered an offensive against France on 15 June 1940. Despite the battle raging in the north, the French Army successfully repelled the attacking force and the Italian assault petered out after a few days, with no significant victories and few territorial gains. Aside from the difficulties of crossing the Alpine mountain range, a geographical feature the French had strongly fortified, the Italian campaign was hindered by poor strategy, ineffective tactics, an outdated military doctrine that failed to acknowledge the importance of combined arms warfare, and appallingly inadequate materiel owing to the erosion of the Italian military industrial base in the 1930s. In fact, the Battle of the Alps set the tone for the overall disappointing military campaign of the Regio Esercito in the Second World War, as the Italian army never fully recovered from its dismal start. Nous nous concentrons, dans cet article, sur la « Bataille des Alpes » de juin 1940, qui opposa la Regio Esercito italienne à l'Armée française des Alpes. Craignant qu'une capitulation anticipée de la France devant l'invasion allemande, qui avait déjà commencé en mai, empêcherait l'Italie d'avoir une part aux butins de guerre, Mussolini ordonna une attaque contre la France le 15 juin 1940. En dépit des combats qui faisaient rage plus au nord, l'armée française réussit à repousser l'ennemi et l'assaut ita-lien tourna court après quelques jours n'ayant remporté aucune victoire importante et reçu que peu de gains territoriaux. À part des difficultés encourues à travers la chaîne de montagnes des Alpes, un élément géographique que la France avait solidement fortifié, la campagne d'Italie fut entravée par une stratégie médiocre, des tactiques inefficaces, une doctrine militaire périmée qui négligea de re-connaître l'importance des forces alliées armées et du matériel épouvantablement inadéquat à cause de la dégradation de la base industrielle militaire de l'Italie dans les années 30. En fait, la Bataille des Alpes fut un présage pour la campagne militaire décevante en tout point du Regio Esercito durant la seconde guerre mondiale, car l'armée italienne ne se remit jamais de son départ lamentable.

Annales , 2016

The graphic novel Italian Winter (L’inverno d’Italia) by Davide Toffolo relays the story of two children, Drago and Giudita, who are interned in the Italian Fascist concentration camp Gonars. The paper will analyse the work and examine its visual language regarding to the content. For the interpretation of the work as a representation of trauma a comparison between Italian Winter and the acclaimed graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. Since Maus has inspired new concepts in the interdisciplinary fi eld of memories studies, this paper builds on some of them for an interpretation of Italian Winter. RAPPRESENTAZIONE DEL TRAUMA NEL L’INVERNO D’ITALIA DA DAVIDE TOFFOLO La novella grafi ca L’inverno d’Italia di Davide Toffolo racconta la storia di due bambini, Drago e Giudita, internati nel campo di concentramento fascista di Gonars. Il saggio analizza la novella ed esamina il suo linguaggio visivo rispetto al contenuto. Per interpretare il lavoro come una rappresentazione del trauma si fa un confronto a Maus, la celebre novella grafi ca di Art Spiegelman. Maus ha ispirato nuovi concetti nel campo interdisciplinare di studio sulla memoria ed alcuni di loro vengono usati per dare un’interpretazione a L’inverno d’Italia.

This study is about discourses of bilingualism in Bolzano-Bozen, Italy, and what they reveal about language, identity, hegemony and the production of social space. The theoretical and methodological framework I use is Nexus Analysis and Geosemiotics: approaches developed by Scollon and Wong Scollon (2004 and 2003, respectively). These approaches have revealed how and why place names, their public placement, Fascist-era monuments and bilingual education maintained a constant presence, under broader discourses on bilingualism, during the research period. Nexus Analysis focuses on social action and Geosemiotics pays meticulous attention to fundamental aspects of signs, including where they are in the material world, and how social actors interact with them. This has led to an investigation of the historical past, and how this is represented, understood and indexed in the present by those who align (or not) to ideologies of language and nation. In the complex multilingual context of this study, this approach has revealed how such ideologies are mobilized to contest ownership of geographic place and to make social space. I have traced discourses across disparate discursive genres, to reveal the complex interrelationships between language and other social semiotic data in discourses on bilingualism in Bolzano-Bozen through time, and across space.

The second chapter of my thesis presents the life and works of Maestro Carmelo Pace.

e paper analyses the evolution of the Italian cultural policy in Yugoslavia a er the conclusion of the Ciano-Stojadinović agreement in 1937. Since that year, the fascist regime launched a determined political-propagandist action in Yugoslavia with a view to making the Italian language and culture protagonists of the Yugoslav cultural scene. Strong Italian cultural presence was considered in Rome necessary in the light of the increased fascist political inuence in the Yugoslav Kingdom. Despite making great e orts, the results were disappointing overall.

Paper discussed at the seminar "Invisible Catalans and the Nationalist Struggle for Recognition. 1886-2014". The seminar was organized by the European Institute of Identities (Swansea University) & GRENS (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).