2 - Little Aliens

Summary

Chapter 2 analyzes the cultural representations of the children born from the interracial encounters discussed in Chapter 1. By interrogating the press and some cultural productions of the period, I question especially the meaning of their representation as alien to the nation or as a “problem,” a term reminiscent of the way race mixing was described in the racist campaign of the fascist period against Jews and other “non-Aryans,” such as the Roma and Sinti. It argues that symbolically these various linguistic and cultural practices tended to exclude these children from the national community, even while stressing a sense of Christian pity for their marginalization and misery.