Dear colleagues,
It is my pleasure to share with you the call for abstracts for the third issue of Occupied Italy, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of the history of the Second World War and its consequences on Italy, from the landing of the Allied troops in Sicily in 1943 up to the Cold War.
The third issue of Occupied Italy will be published in September 2023, with the theme: "From the American enemy to the American myth: the USA in the eyes of Italy between the Second World War and the Cold War”.
This call intends to stimulate reflections on the forms and influences of the phenomenon of Americanism in Italy, from the memory of the Allied occupation up to the years of the Cold War. Today, several studies, in the historical, political, and sociological fields, agree in considering the United States a fundamental actor in the processes of redefinition of Italian national identity after the end of the Second World War and the fall of fascism. The question that we want to explore is: in what forms, ways, and times did the American model influence Italian developments?
The third issue of Occupied Italy therefore aims to contribute to a broad and articulated debate, to promote the most recent trends in the historiography on the subject, favoring a multidisciplinary approach and attention to long-term processes and influences of historical phenomena.
Contributions, in Italian and in English, related to the following topics are encouraged (the list is not to be considered exhaustive):
- The USA as enemy and ally: America and US occupation forces in the eyes of RSI fighters/Resistance/civilian population; the representation of the US occupation forces in the propaganda of the RSI and the German occupation forces.
- The American Way of Life in Italian society and in the public imagination: transfer of values from the USA to Italy during the conflict and beyond; the evolution of pro-US discourse in the media and in public and political debate between World War II and the Cold War; anti-Americanism and its various forms in wartime and post-war Italy.
- Italy as a "battlefield" of the Cold War: the evolution of the relationship between the Italian and US institutions from the period 1943-1945.
- Influences of the American myth in the transformation of gender representation in Italy after the Second World War.
- The channels and methods of diffusion of the American myth in the Italian and European context (radio, television, press).
- The influences on cultural representation and products: the American myth through literature, cinema, and the arts.
- The "Cultural Cold War": the American myth and the Soviet myth as instruments of the diplomatic and political struggle between the superpowers in Italy.
- The USA as a model for a new Italian liberalism.
Deadlines:
Abstracts have to be submitted by March 6, 2023, to editors@occupieditaly.org.
The selected authors will have to submit by April 24, 2023, their articles, which will then undergo the process of double blind peer review.
The full call for abstracts can be found here. For more information please do not hesitate to contact me at the email address above.
Best wishes,
Francesco Cacciatore
Editor in Chief, Occupied Italy
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