'Italy': Image and Clichés in Post-war International Music and Media History (2022–2023)

Workshop & publication project (Max Weber Foundation, German Historical Institute in Rome)

In April 2022, a multi-day workshop at the German Historical Institute in Rome brought together scholars from Italy, Germany, Austria and Great Britain in a transdisciplinary dialog on the image and the numerous clichés surrounding the fascination of 'Italy' in the international music and media history of the post-war period. The aim of the project was to better understand the construction of the powerful myth of Italy in modernity and the phenomenon of internationally widespread clichés full of national subtexts that are often associated with it. During the workshop, perspectives from historical musicology were confronted with those from ethnomusicology, literature and media studies. The case studies discussed not only took into account the fact that the pluralization of the media, mass tourism, internationalization and often politically charged categories such as homeland, folklore or exoticism led to a reactivation and increased marketing of Italy as a historical place of longing in the 20th century. On the basis of meaningful image, sound and text sources from Italian, US-American, South American, French, Dutch and German-Austrian contexts, it also became clear how offensively the audio-visual construction of the association 'Italy' was inscribed into everyday culture and what interpretations and recontextualizations occurred in the course of this. The workshop resulted in a speciel issue that shows the multimedia re-imagination of 'Italy' since the middle of the 20th century. Well-known catchy tunes, advertising clips and postcards come into play, as do pop song translations, the figure of James Bond, GDR films and Allianz insurance. As the foreword to the publication states: " The perspectives opened up here complement each other with regard to the critical examination of an almost unmanageable, continuous production and diffusion of images of Italy full of clichés and stereotypes on both auditory and visual levels. Precisely because they have long since found their way into the international everyday culture of the 21st century across all media, it is to be hoped that reading these contributions will encourage a productive skepticism towards what actually constitutes Italy - or, contrary to widespread belief, what does not. (Quoted from: C. Krahn, Fakturen eines Faszinosums: 'Italien' als multimedialer Assoziationsgegenstand, in: QFIAB 103 (2023), pp. 3-7, here p. 7).

Further information: Publication on the publisher's website

Participants: Luca Aversano, Marina Forell, Marita Liebermann, Julio Mendívil, Nina Noeske, Goffredo Plastino

Project Leader: Carolin Krahn