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Good Morning, Pupil!' American Representations of Italianness and the Occupation of Italy, 1943—1945

Bibliographic Data

ID10072813
AuthorsAndrew Buchanan (0000-0001-8143-7770, University of Vermont, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume43
Issue2
Pages217-240
Publication date2008-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022009408089030
OpenAlexW1987697904
LanguageEN
Citations received7

Popular American images of Italianness before and during the second world war represented Italians as an infantile, emotional and largely apolitical people whose character was marked by cowardice and unpredictable violence. Unlike the German and Japanese peoples, who, by dint of their inherent militarism or their racialized religious allegiance to their 'god-emperor', were judged complicit in the policies of their governments, Italians were presented as the hapless victims of fascism. This construction enabled the place and significance of America's war with Italy to be systematically underemphasized and, more importantly, it allowed the Allied occupation of Italy to be framed from the beginning as an exercise in humanitarian redemption. This article examines the relationship between American representations of Italianness in films, novels and the news media, and the actuality of the Allied occupation, and contrasts it with the experience of the occupations of Germany and Japan

Allegiance · Ancient history · Character (mathematics · Cowardice · Emperor · German · Militarism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European history and politics · Gender Studies · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law

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Unique citing works7
Citations per year0,47
Citation span2011 - 2025 (15)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 7

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