Hauntings of Empire: the Continuing Memory of Italian Expansionism

Professor Charles Burdett (Durham University) presents at the Italian at Leeds and Leeds Institute of Colonial and Postcolonial Studies research event.

Speaker: Professor Charles Burdett (Durham University)

Abstract: The talk argues that in approaching modern Italian culture we need always to take account of the traces left by past instances of mobility. It looks briefly at the course of Italian expansionism both immediately before and during the twenty years (1922-43) in which the Fascist regime was in power in Italy. Above all, the talk addresses the question of haunting and the ways in which we can see the legacy of this period in works of literary and visual culture, in examples of the built environment and within enduring attitudes towards other cultures and people. The talk aims to suggest how we can become aware of the proximity of the colonial world and how the spectre of the past infiltrates and disturbs the present.

Respondent: Dr Neelam Srivastava (Newcastle University)

Research event co-organised by Italian at Leeds and the Leeds Institute of Colonial and Postcolonial Studies (ICPS)

Contacts: Dr Gigliola Sulis, g.sulis@leeds.ac.uk; Professor Graham Huggan, g.d.m.huggan@leeds.ac.uk