Under Italian Fascism, African-Italian mulattoes and white Italians living in Egypt posed a particular threat to the pursuit of a homogenous national identity. This book examines novels and films of the period, showing that their attempts at stigmatization were self-undermining, forcing audiences to reassess their collective identity.

This study contributes substantially to critical texts on Italian colonialism, Fascism, and postcolonial Italy, and to studies of racial identity in Italy by considering the role of hybrid individuals and the way in which they directly challenged . The valuable, and timely, historical lesson contained in this bookparticularly in light of the current migration crisis in the Mediterraneanis twofold: Italian national and racial identities are contested and fluid, and borders and boundaries are not fixed. (Meriel Tulante, gender/sexuality/italy, gendersexualityitaly.com, Issue 05, 2018)

Autorentext
Rosetta Giuliani Caponetto is Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Auburn University, USA.

Inhalt
Introduction: Meticci and Levantines in Literary and Cinematic Representations of Colonial Experience in Africa 1. Art of Darkness: The Aestheticization of Black People in Fascist Colonial Novels 2. The Dissident Literature of Enrico Pea and Fausta Cialente 3. Fade to White: Cinematic Representations of Italian Whiteness 4. Levantines and Biracial Offspring in Postwar Italy Conclusion