Gender Violence in Wartime and Under Colonialism:An Introduction to Recent Research in Italian History

Abstract

Beginning from the 1990s, two trends have heightened international awareness of the role of gender violence in humanitarian crises. The first trend is related to developments in the fields of colonialism and gender studies, and the second the explosion of gender violence in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. One of the results is an increased interest among historians in the issue of gender violence in wars and under colonialism. Italy is no exception to these trends; however the particular turn studies on gender violence have taken in Italian historiography during the 21st century is directly related to specific circumstances in that country.

The 1990s marked a major turning point in post-war Italian political life. This turn was marked by the rise of historical revisionism that sought to play down the responsibility for the past, especially for Fascism and the invasions of foreign countries that followed. The Italian state has engaged in a major national project to create a new national identity, separate from the Fascist and colonial past. Alongside a historical revisionism that makes only a superficial critique of the past, there has been a growing move among historians to reflect on their own roles in the process of creating this collective identity. The issue of gender violence in wartime and under colonialism is one of the important issues in this reflection.

For both post-war Italian historiography as well as for the historical revisionists, these are issues that have long been neglected. In that sense the current movement to make the study of gender violence an important issue, shows that the adoption of a gender perspective is functioning as an invitation to reconsider the fundamental process and meaning of the construction of history.