Internal Exile in Fascist Italy: History and Representations of Confino - Paperback

by Piero Garofalo (Author), Elizabeth Leake (Author), Dana Renga (Author)

This book is an accessible history of internal exile's origins and practices under Fascism and of its representation in film, literature and memoir.

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Internal exile in Fascist Italy offers a clear and concise introduction to confino, a form of imprisonment used during the Fascist ventennio that saw antifascist dissidents exiled to remote islands or tiny inland villages.

The book examines confino from a historical, political, social and cultural perspective, through both a broad overview and close analyses of particular cases and situations. The book is organised in two sections. Part one provides a case study of the political colony on the island of Lipari and a historical overview of internal exile. Part two focuses representations of confinement in literature and film. It examines the varieties of self-expression - memoirs, letters, and literature - used by prisoners to describe their experiences and investigates how filmmakers interpret these events, places, and people; particularly exploring how film portrays the repression of homosexuality.

The act of confinement was a tool that allowed Mussolini to bypass the judiciary, and to targeted political dissidents, ethnic and religious minorities, and members of the gay community among others. This book seeks to contextualise a political practice that continues to find applications in twenty-first-century detention policies; and to enhance the understanding of how contemporary social discourse promotes political agendas rooted in issues - such as populism, anti-terrorism, nationalism and ethnocentrism - that are historically related to Fascism's suppression of dissidents

Internal exile in Fascist Italy offers a coherent and accessible portrait of confino in its various manifestations. The authors argue that internal exile is not purely political: it possesses a cultural history that speaks to the present. Although directed towards students and specialists of Italian history, literature, film and culture, the study is accessible to those with a general interest in Fascism.

Author Biography

Piero Garofalo is Professor of Italian Studies at the University of New Hampshire

Elizabeth Leake is Professor of Italian at Columbia University

Dana Renga is Associate Professor of Italian at The Ohio State University