Building pasta's empire

Barilla in Italian East Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID19002696
AuthorsDiana Garvin (0000-0003-1469-6953, University of Oregon, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume28
Issue2
Pages97-126
Publication date2023-02-28
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Italy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1353-2944 • E-ISSN: 1469-9877
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/mit.2023.3
OpenAlexW4322627863
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

This article investigates the role that Italian food companies like Barilla pasta played in creating narratives of East African empire at the apex of the Fascist ventennio . It aims to use the commercial remnants of Fascist empire to provide a more thorough accounting of how colonialism shaped the modern cultural history of Italian pasta. To do so, I analyze the paper ephemera, that is, the pasta advertisements and packaging, that connected occupied East Africa to Italy, demonstrating how regime projects to promote grain evolved into corporate projects in private industry. I argue that these two stories form a single cohesive narrative, one that can unite much of the excellent work that has been done on Fascist agriculture in empire with the transnational history of Italian food companies. East African empire, as depicted by Italian pasta shapes and advertisements, was consumable. At stake in this inquiry lies the shifting question of Italian national identity, framed by food products in global contexts

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Colonialism · Economics · Economy · Empire · Ephemera · Globalization · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law

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