Presentation of the book “Rome, 16 October 1943. History, Memory, Literature” by Mara Josi and screening of the film “1938 – Diversi” (2018)
Thursday 25 January 2024 at 6.00pm-8.00pm
Italian Institute of Culture, Pavilion Hall
Every year, the network of Embassies and Institutes of Culture commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day, in memory of all the victims of the Holocaust, racial laws, and all Italian military and political deportees in Nazi camps.
On January 25th, at the Italian Institute of Culture, we will host dr. Mara Josi, a young researcher from Ghent University (formerly UCD), who will present her monography “Rome, 16 October 1943. History, Memory, Literature” (Legenda, 2023), on the deportation of Italian Jews in conversation with Prof. Ursula Fanning (UCD).
Following the presentation, the documentary film “1938 – Diversi” (2018 – 60′), directed by Giorgio Treves, will be screened in Italian with English subtitles. The film was presented at the 75th Venice Film Festival and won the 2019 Nastro d’Argento Award for Best Documentary.
Free admission. Reservation required on this page.
ABOUT THE BOOK “Rome, 16 October 1943. History, Memory, Literature” (Legenda, 2023) by Mara Josi, Series: Italian Perspectives, Volume: 60, Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association, Legenda Pages: 192. The book: Rome. Saturday 16 October 1943. This is where and when the largest single round-up and deportation of Jews from Italy happened. 1259 people were arrested by the German occupiers and gathered in a temporary detention centre for two days. They were eventually deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau from a local railway station. “Rome, 16 October 1943. History, Memory, Literature” examines Italian cultural memory of the Roman round-up through the unexplored perspective of literary writings. It uses methods of cultural memory studies to analyse the influence of literature on collective and individual memory. It demonstrates that the literary texts dedicated to the Roman round-up have been bearers of historical awareness, and channels of memory; not only outcomes of remembrance but also active ingredients in the process of forging cultural memory.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Mara Josi is a FWO Postdoctoral Researcher at Ghent University. Since her PhD at the University of Cambridge (2017-2021), she has been dealing with the investigation of national, supranational, and transnational recollections of historical events in Italian 20th and 21st-century literature and culture. Her interest in such a field is the outcome of an almost decade-long engagement with Italian Holocaust culture and literary writings devoted to the processes of discrimination and persecution in Italy during the Fascist dictatorship, the Italian Social Republic, and the Nazi occupation.
ABOUT THE FILM “1938 Diversi” (2018) Genre Animation. Running time 62 min. Country Italy. Director Giorgio Treves. Screenwriter Giorgio Treves, Luca Scivoletto Music Lamberto Macchi. Synopsis: 1938-2018: eighty years have passed since the Fascist regime’s promulgation of the racial laws. An important and unfortunately still highly relevant anniversary. Eighty years ago the Italian people, who have not traditionally been anti-Semitic, were induced by Fascist propaganda to accept the persecution of a minority that had been living peacefully in Italy for centuries. What made this possible? And how much do we know about that moment in history today? The film was presented at the 75th Venice Film Festival and won the 2019 Nastro d’Argento Award for Best Documentary.
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