«Ibernia fabulosa»: per una storia delle immagini dell'Irlanda in Italia
The essay traces the history of the relations between Italy and Ireland from the 7 th century AD to the present. The Irish monks and pilgrims of the Dark Ages brought to the peninsula their hagiographic and legendary writings (such as the Purgatorium Sancti Patricii ), which contributed – together with reminiscences from Classical antiquity – to an Italian vision of Ireland as a land of portents and wonders; while after the first Anglo-Norman conquest of the isle the propagandist writings of Gerald of Wales where for centuries the lens through which Ireland was seen in Italy. In the age of the Tudor conquest and Reformation the island slowly lost its fantastic connotations, becoming an asset in the Papal struggle against Anglican England. Later on, in the course of the Italian Risorgimento, the Italian leaders of the movement – such as Mazzini, Cavour, and Cattaneo - generally saw the nationalist movement in Ireland through English eyes, both because of their innate Anglophilia and for reasons of Realpolitik. Only in the 20 th century, during WW1 and its aftermath, did Ireland and its national struggle receive in Italy less jaundiced and more sympathetic glances. In the late 1930s and in WW2 the Fascist regime tried to use Ireland as a lever against England; while in the 1970s and 1980s the reemergence of the Anglo-Irish conflict attracted again the interested attention of some sections of the Italian political scene, as did later the ‘peace process’. But through all this the Italian images of Ireland arising from present political realities kept being intertwined with the much older images of centuries gone by.
“The Island without Peace” Reporting the Irish War of Independence in Corriere della Sera and La Domenica del Corriere
The article investigates the coverage of the War of Independence in the visual and textual materials of Corriere della Sera and La Domenica del Corriere to show why these publications kept a mildly pro-British stance on the conflict while voicing their concerns. These leading publications gave extensive coverage to the Irish struggle for national self-determination, in which members of the Sinn Féin party were depicted as a dangerous minority and Ireland was called “troubled” or “the island without peace”. My contention is that such representations were infl uenced by the editorial staff ’s fears about the contemporary Italian socio-political situation, nationally and internationally. Therefore, the articles and illustrations on the confl ict should be read not only within the framework of the periodicals’ usual concern for international politics, but also by considering the anxieties haunting the Italian intellectual elite at the time.
Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate
PART I: The Pre-Islamic Middle East Chapter 1 Mesopotamia Chapter 2 The Mediterranean Middle East PART II: Founding Discourses Chapter 3 Women and the Rise of Islam Chapter 4 The Transitional Age Chapter 5 Elaboration of the Founding Discourses Chapter 6 Medieval Islam PART III: New Discourses Chapter 7 Social and Intellectual Change Chapter 8 The Discourse of the Veil Chapter 9 The First Feminists Chapter 10 Divergent Voices Chapter 11 The Struggle for the Future Conclusion Notes Index.