Mary Jane Dempsey
Enzo Traverso
ROM 6350
30 September 2017
Book Review: Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa—constructions of racial and national identity in the Italian cinema by SHELLEEN GREENE In her most recent work, Shelleen Greene attempts to present a multifaceted depiction of mixed-race roles in Italian cinema. Her book, Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa—constructions of racial and national identity in the Italian cinema, published in 2014, uses twenty-four films, ranging from silent to contemporary, to demonstrate how Italian cinema has engaged with mixed-race subjects in the formation of Italian racial identity. While Áine O’Healy argues that the book “draws on an impressive range of sources to explore the intersecting constructions of race and nation in Italian cinema over the course of a century,” Greene’s attempts to link this massive number of films …show more content…
In both cases, the Italian women are portrayed as victims of rape by the African American men, therefore creating a racial stereotype of uncontrollable violence, which is then reflected in the mixed-race child. In this same section, Greene also discusses Miracle at St. Anna (2008), Spike Lee’s film that looks at African American troops at the massacre of Sant’Anna Stazzema. Although Greene attempts to use Lee’s revisionist approach to history as a means to comment on Italy’s postwar neorealist films, it seems a bit out of place as its focus is not on mixed-race subjects, but rather the relationships between these men and the small Italian village. While an important film in looking at conceptions of race in Italy and the United States, Lee’s film does not quite fit in this
Enzo Traverso
ROM 6350
30 September 2017
Book Review: Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa—constructions of racial and national identity in the Italian cinema by SHELLEEN GREENE In her most recent work, Shelleen Greene attempts to present a multifaceted depiction of mixed-race roles in Italian cinema. Her book, Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa—constructions of racial and national identity in the Italian cinema, published in 2014, uses twenty-four films, ranging from silent to contemporary, to demonstrate how Italian cinema has engaged with mixed-race subjects in the formation of Italian racial identity. While Áine O’Healy argues that the book “draws on an impressive range of sources to explore the intersecting constructions of race and nation in Italian cinema over the course of a century,” Greene’s attempts to link this massive number of films …show more content…
In both cases, the Italian women are portrayed as victims of rape by the African American men, therefore creating a racial stereotype of uncontrollable violence, which is then reflected in the mixed-race child. In this same section, Greene also discusses Miracle at St. Anna (2008), Spike Lee’s film that looks at African American troops at the massacre of Sant’Anna Stazzema. Although Greene attempts to use Lee’s revisionist approach to history as a means to comment on Italy’s postwar neorealist films, it seems a bit out of place as its focus is not on mixed-race subjects, but rather the relationships between these men and the small Italian village. While an important film in looking at conceptions of race in Italy and the United States, Lee’s film does not quite fit in this