Taking Italian Colonialism Seriously: A (visual) Sociological Approach

Unlike other countries, Italy seems not have reflected enough on its colonial past. Only in recent years the topic gain relevance, but the discussion is limited to narrow circles, like academics and political activists. In this sense, before to question about – often unclear – concepts like “decolonisation” or “postcolonialism”, it is necessary to understand why the Italian colonialism is scarcely thematised in communication. In order to do this, it could be useful to separate the normative claims to collective and civic memory and justice, on the one hand, from the lack of effective narratives, on the other hand. The hypothesis is that a visual and sociological approach could help both to collect and classify the existing material about Italian colonialism (places, memorials, and so on) – especially through visual information – and to investigate – especially through visual methods – the dynamic between remembering and forgetting in the national context.