Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa - Constructions of Racial and National Identity in the Italian Cinema

Greene’s illuminating 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. Combining historical analysis with close readings of landmark films, this persuasively argued account makes a pathbreaking contribution to Italian film studies. –Áine O’Healy, Professor of Italian and Director of the Humanities Program, Loyola Marymount University, USA

This is a highly original and insightful study of the figure of the mixed-race subject in Italian cinema. Covering films from the early 20th century to those dealing with contemporary representations of Italian-African interracial relationships, the book shows the continuing legacy of racial discourses linked to colonialism, migration and Italy’s historic North/South division. In its specific examination of the Italy-Africa mixture, it goes beyond the traditional identification of the mixed-race subject as simply the off-spring of Italian and African parents and identifies Italians themselves as mixed-race. Highlighting Italy’s own internal racialisation of the Italian South and Italians’ ascribed racial in-betweenness, Greene brilliantly highlights the contextual and precarious nature of racial identities and categorisation. She makes a compelling argument about how ‘mixed-race’ is a particularly unique lens through which to investigate ideologies of race and nation in Italy. –Jacqueline Andall, Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies, University of Bath

Equivocal Subjects offers many starting points of discussion to better understand Italian and mixed-Italian identities and creates a global and exhaustive overview of their depiction in visual communication. Well-written, fluid and never boring, the book underscores the author’s passion and her strong emotional involvement with mixed-race issues. — Stefano Ancilli, La Sapienza Universitá di Roma ― Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

Greene’s text assumes that scholars of both Italian studies and film studies will accept the heuristics of reading Italian culture and its postcolonial inheritance through the lens and in the context of film, rather than exploring the possible problematics in such an approach. While some scholars may disagree with that assumption on the theoretical level, Greene’s study nonetheless provides either school with valuable facts and analyses and is a solid groundwork for either discipline. — Marie Orton, Truman State University ― Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies