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Il cammino degli eroi: the empire as a mark of modernity. Representations of colonial power in a famous regime documentary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2016

Gabriele Proglio
Gabriele Proglio*
Affiliation:
European University Institute, University of Tunis ‘El Manar’
*
*Email: gabrieleproglio@gmail.com, gabriele.proglio@eui.eu
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Abstract

This article examines the most important documentary film about the Italian ‘victory’ in Ethiopia, Il cammino degli eroi, by Corrado D’Errico (1936), the primary aim being to shed light on its complex iconographic system of representation. The first part examines the representation of the ‘African Mussolini’. In the second part, the article analyses the ‘conqueror’s gaze’ in the visual perspective employed by D’Errico in his account of the new Italian colony. The third part is devoted to arguing the juxtaposition between ‘Italian Creation and Ethiopian apocalypse’. Finally, the last part of the article deals with the reasons for the Ethiopian war.

Italian summary

Questo articolo analizza uno dei più importanti documentari prodotti in occasione della ‘vittoria’ in Etiopia, Il cammino degli Eroi, di Corrado D’Errico (1936). L’obiettivo che si propone è di studiare il complesso sistema di rappresentazione iconografica. La prima parte è dedicata alla rappresentazione del “Mussolini Africano”. Nella seconda parte, lo “sguardo del conquistatore” è analizzato nella prospettiva visuale impiegata da D’Errico per raccontare la nuova colonia italiana. La terza parte, poi, è dedicata a problematizzare la contrapposizione tra ‘crazione italiana’ e ‘apocalissi etiope’. Infine, l’ultima parte dell’articolo si occupa delle motivazioni, espresse nella pellicola, per la Guerra d’Etiopia.

Keywords

FascismEthiopiaempiredocumentaryMussolini
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , August 2016 , pp. 289 - 303
Copyright
© 2016 Association for the Study of Modern Italy 

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