DISUCOM

La stesura del romanzo Le Tigri di Mompracem, dalla sua prima versione in appendice del 1883 alla sua pubblicazione in volume, ha visto modifiche e adattamenti che riflettono un graduale affievolirsi dei caratteri più cruenti e sanguinari della figura di Sandokan, e un progressivo aumentare di parole e descrizioni esotiche. L’intervento, partendo dall’esame di questi cambiamenti, attraverso un’analisi letteraria e assumendo un punto di vista antropologico, vuole andare ad analizzare la struttura e le dinamiche che sottendono alla costruzione dell’esotico salgariano.

"Sailing through the Representation of the Others: An Italian-ness surfacing from the Sea?
During the second half of the nineteenth century, shortly after the reunification of Italy, the Italian Navy with the first circumnavigation of the world made by the Pirocorvetta Magenta commenced a season of Italian presence on the international seas geared to building diplomatic contacts, helping to find countrymen and Italian explorers missing in different parts of the world and looking for potential colonies.
During these voyages, amounting to ten circumnavigations of the globe and twenty-two oceanic campaigns from 1865 to 1890, Italian naval officers had the chance to get in contact directly and for the first time with the most diverse populations: from Japanese to Chinese, from the aborigines of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia to the inhabitants of Papua-New Guinea. Due to their diaries and notes, we can have an idea of how they used to picture ‘the Others’.
Most of the literature concerning the cultural encounter, instead of exploring the Otherness’s particulars, ends by reaffirming its own ethnocentric premises; instead of picturing the space outside ‘civilization’, simply codifies and preserves its own mental structures (Janmohamed). In view of this, a post-colonial re-reading of these diaries and travel notes can become a privileged way to search for the imaginary transfigurations of the identity conflicts (Said).
Through the analysis of these representations, in which very few talk about other populations and a lot about the Italian way of looking at them, it is possible to explicate the topoi of the speech between Italians and the ‘Others’ and to understand, by contrast, how much they tell us about the Italian identity, the Italian-ness, and how it was being developed shortly after the unification, in relation to other nations and to the increasing spread of a strong colonial idea. "

"Italian Gazing: Lands and men in the eyes of a continental mariner

During the second half of the nineteenth century, shortly after the reunification of Italy, the Italian Navy ship Magenta made its first circumnavigation of the world. This initiated Italy’s presence on the international seas and was geared to building diplomatic contacts, helping to find countrymen and Italian explorers missing in different parts of the world and looking for potential colonies. Between 1865 and 1890 Italian naval officers had the chance to make contact with a multitude of diverse non-European populations and distant lands, and then to write down their thoughts and impressions.
Most of the literature concerning the new cultural encounters – instead of exploring the particulars of the ‘Other’ – has a tendency to reaffirm Italian ethnocentric perceptions; instead of picturing the space outside of Western ‘civilization’ in an objective manner, it simply codifies and preserves its own mental structures. Furthermore Italy, notwithstanding her long costal extension and glorious past during the ages of the Maritime Republics, developed a mistrustful and protective approach toward the sea. Indeed, in many cases the Italian mental attitude in these new cultural encounters was influenced by an introspective and affective projection bound to preexisting visions of territory and agriculture.
In actual fact, by reading the diaries and notes of the mariners we can establish an understanding of how Italians formed a picture of others and their home; comparing habitats and habits with those found in their homeland, in a continuous dialectical process between intimacy and extraneousness, assimilation and exclusion/estrangement. In particular, we will analyze the existing relationship between landscape and the representations of the natives in relation to the mental and affective continental correspondence; then explain the dynamics of understanding and control and the relationship with potential Italian colonialist projections.  "

Beauty, Bestiality, Self and Identity in Late Nineteenth Century Italian Mariners Travel Notes 

Shortly after the reunification of Italy there commenced a period of Italian presence on the international seas geared to building diplomatic contacts, finding countrymen such as Italian explorers missing in different parts of the world, and looking for potential colonies. During these voyages, Italian naval officers had the chance to contact directly for the first time the most diverse populations: from Japanese to Chinese, from the aborigines of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia to the inhabitants of Papua-New Guinea. Their travel notes and diaries provide us with a rich account of the men and women they encountered that demonstrate a particular observational orientation toward bodily appearance, shared with travel literature (ars apodemica) and the emerging anthropological science of the 19th Century.

In particular, human physical appearance was evaluated on the basis of dynamics of attraction or repulsion connected to the representational ideals of the Classical world, or according to a classificatory spectrum between nature and culture establishing the grade of civilization of the population encountered, and implicitly of the Italians themselves. Therefore, this paper proposes to analyze the representation of beauty (as enchantment, harmony, proportion and as a reflection of divine will) and of ugliness (disharmony, deformity, degeneration, monstrosity and, most of all, bestiality) contained in these scripts in the light of the specific post-reunification context. This is related to the importance for these protagonists of building an Italian identity.

"Travelling South in Post-unitary Italy: Caterina Pigorini Beri in Calabria

In a period generally characterized by a subaltern vision of women, Caterina Pigorini Beri, Dean of the Scuola Normale of Camerino and sister of the founder of the Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum of Rome, distinguishes herself in Italy as a sensitive novelist and researcher of popular traditions and customs.
In 1883 she travels alone to Calabria, and in 1892 she publishes her notes in book form. Half way between the Grand Tour tradition and the scientific reportage, her text describes the landscape and people she encounters in an Italian South that is characterized by a substantive otherness, when compared to the rest of the peninsula. Her travels are among the so considered ‘inner savages’ of a country busied by the social issues of ‘meridione’ and attempting to build a national identity.
Caterina belongs to a rich hegemonic bourgeoisie and dedicates her book to a noble woman of Southern Italy at a time when Italian colonial interests arise. Yet she is not a suffragette, nor a revolutionary. What is her view of the people, and particularly of the women she encounters? How are they described? What kind of sensibility makes her diverge from the representations of male travelers and anthropologists of the time? And, most importantly, how does she relate to the women she encounters, especially those who belong to ethic and linguistic minorities such as the Arbereshe? "

Language and imagery of patriotism and otherness in Giuseppe Piccinini’s Guerra d’Africa (1887)

During the second half of the nineteenth century a great expansion in the Italian editorial market led to a more general book consumption with popular publications invading the scene. Travel literature, in particular, was nurtured in Italy by the growing geographical movement, which was leading nations to take an interest in the last outposts of the world not yet explored by man, and was interwoven with its first appearance as a nation on the international scene, both in seas and on land. At the beginning of the African adventure, however, a specific Italian colonial literature arose, strictly connected with new consensus necessities.

Giuseppe Piccinini’s publication Guerra d’Africa appeared in 1887, right after the Italian defeat of Dogali. Edited by Edmondo Perino in Rome, it consists of 150 instalments, and it was intended to be a real source of information about the Italian military campaigns in Africa, especially after Italy’s determination to make war over Abyssinia and to avenge Dogali. Notwithstanding this, the popular nature of Piccinini’s work blurs the line between fiction and reality on more than one occasion, making the book particularly interesting as a means by which to investigate late nineteenth century colonial propaganda and representations of otherness. In fact, the Guerra d’Africa is full of geographical, historical, and anthropological anecdotes, whilst the accounts are interwoven with some Romances to satisfy the readers’ expectations; moreover, the whole narrative is supported by commemorating cameos that strikingly contrast with the African characters, and different narrative styles come into succession depicting a kaleidoscopic and lively way of capturing the public’s attention.
This paper seeks to analyse the language and imagery used in Piccinini’s book, showing how Italian national identity is being constructed and embedded in this narrative.

"From marshes to glory: Augusto Imperiali’s iconic legacy in the Pianura Pontina

Preceded by his fame, Buffalo Bill and the Wild West Show arrived for the first time in Italy in 1890 for a nationwide tour. After a first stop in Naples, the 8th of March the American cowboys reached the area of Cisterna di Latina (south of Rome).  Following an argument between Buffalo Bill and the Duke Onorato Caetani regarding their respective abilities as horse and cattle tamers, Buffalo Bill’s cowboys challenged the Italian butteri to saddle and ride some wild American colts, without being thrown off. The event was closely followed by the public and national press and ended up in a resounding success for the Italian cowboys.

Augusto Imperiali’s picture shaking hands with Buffalo Bill after his successful feat was published in several newspapers. The episode made a profound impression in Italy, especially on the local community, which at the time was a very poor region infested with malaria. ‘Augustarello’, as it was called, became a hero and his victory part of the historical memory of the area, so much so that its anniversary is celebrated to the present day, with a school, a statue, a graphic novel and books dedicated to him.

Looking at different iconographic materials (from historical pictures to modern graphic novels), this paper seeks to analyse how Augustarello’s image, in contrasting the iconic power embedded in Buffalo Bill’s personage, worked as catalyst for a representational process leading to a different perception of the local community over the years, strengthening its traditions and reshaping its representations of the physical environment. "

"Lamberto Loria fu uno dei più importanti esploratori italiani della seconda metà dell’Ottocento, e colui che con spirito di iniziativa, passione e costanza diede sostanziale supporto assieme ad Aldobrandino Mochi alla creazione del Museo di Etnografia italiana di Firenze, i cui materiali confluirono nella Mostra di Etnografia italiana del 1911.
Il cambiamento che lo portò dai viaggi di esplorazione fra popoli esotici ad interessarsi alle cosiddette ‘indie di quaggiù’, reso famoso dalla sua illuminazione a Circello del Sannio nel 1905, trova diretto parallelo nella sua maturazione come fotografo. Da dilettante alle prese con le prime difficoltà sul campo in Turkmenistan a vice-direttore della ‘Società Fotografica Italiana’ e autore del capitolo Sull’uso della macchina fotografica (parte delle Istruzioni per lo studio della Colonia Eritrea), fino alle Le avvertenze generali per la raccolta dei documenti etnografici per il museo fiorentino, Loria dimostrò una progressiva consapevolezza non solo dell’uso tecnico del mezzo, ma anche dell’importanza stessa della rappresentazione iconografica nella ricerca etnografica.
L’esperienza papuana, in particolare, sembra averlo segnato indelebilmente. Se infatti non pubblicò molto al riguardo (Loria, è risaputo, non fu mai un grande amante della penna: era più un uomo d’azione), è grazie alle migliaia di lastre che riportò in ottimo stato dalla Nuova Guinea che nel 1899 si consacrò nell’allora neonato panorama fotografico italiano. Inoltre, dall’esame delle fotografie, dei diari e delle note etnografiche (su cui sto lavorando assieme a Sandra Puccini e grazie alle gentile concessione di Egidio Cossa), appare con relativa chiarezza la funzione integrativa che l’apparato iconografico assunse per l’esploratore nella sua ricerca sul campo, andando ad ampliare le direttive contenute nelle varie Istruzioni di viaggio redatte dalla scuola fiorentina di Antropologia.
L’intervento si propone quindi di presentare sia un excursus storico-biografico dell’avvicinamento di Loria al mezzo fotografico, fra viaggi lontani e ‘selvaggi interni’; sia un’incursione esemplificativa del suo utilizzo in campo etnografico attraverso l’esposizione di alcune foto particolarmente significative".