Valentina Pisanty
Università degli Studi di Bergamo (University of Bergamo), Dipartimento di Lettere, Filosofia, Comunicazione (Department of Letters, Philosophy, Communication), Faculty Member
Università degli Studi di Bergamo (University of Bergamo), Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia, Faculty Member
Address: Dipartimento di Lettere, Filosofia, Comunicazione
via Pignolo 123
24121 Bergamo (BG)
via Pignolo 123
24121 Bergamo (BG)
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AND THE RETURN OF THE XENOPHOBIC RIGHT
Translated by Alastair McEwen
Copyright © Bompiani, 2019
USA Edition copyright ©
2020 CPL EDITIONS
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-941046-32-6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
For a Memory Culture Beyond Victims and Perpetrators.
By Michael Rothberg. 9
Introduction
What Went Wrong? 19
By Valentina Pisanty
Chapter I, The Duty of Memory. 31
Chapter II, The Discourse of History 75
Chapter III, Collective Memories 109
Chapter IV, New Cinema of the Shoah 153
Chapter V, The Spectacle of Evil 201
Chapter VI, Denial and Punishment 229
Appendix 263
End notes 285
Bibliography 307
Filmography 329
Index 335
Ciò che muta, si evolve, sperimenta derive e assestamenti non è dunque l’esigenza diffusa di confrontarsi con un evento così traumatico; ma piuttosto l’intreccio degli usi a cui la sua memoria è stata sottoposta, con l’effetto cumulativo di trasformare la Shoah in oggetto di devozione, collante ideologico, categoria di pensiero, prodotto di marketing e, all’occorrenza, strumento contundente.
Di tali usi questo libro tratta non con il fine precipuo di discriminare la memoria legittima da quella cattiva, ma di indagarne i dispositivi retorici e le logiche soggiacenti; di ricostruire i percorsi di trasformazione dell’evento storico in macchina mitologica, generatrice di sensi e di abusi ulteriori; di mostrare – secondo una prospettiva nuova – l’interazione conflittuale e tuttavia sorprendentemente integrata tra i tre principali abusi che oggi si contendono la gestione della memoria: la negazione, la banalizzazione, la sacralizzazione.
Tali sono le domande che vengono affrontate in questo volume che ha la forma e la struttura del manuale, ma in effetti è un libro con una tesi ben precisa che emerge in tutti i capitoli: dal segno si passa alla semiosi, dal dizionario all’enciclopedia, dalla struttura all’interpretazione e alle attività cognitive, nel tentativo di dare un seguito articolato alla semiotica interpretativa di Umberto Eco.
Papers
Son of Saul, offered a theoretically controversial approach to the subject of Holocaust representation, they did not raise debates comparable to those that accompanied the release of other homologous movies in previous decades. What is this lack of controversy symptomatic of and to what extent may it be attributed to a change in sensibility that is investing the memory of the Shoah? My hypothesis is that the phenomenon known as Holocaust fatigue is but the tip of a deeper transformation involving the institutionalization of Memory, on the one hand, and a gradual acknowledgement of the master narrative’s failure to encompass the diversely traumatic experiences we are currently struggling to make sense of, on the other.
AND THE RETURN OF THE XENOPHOBIC RIGHT
Translated by Alastair McEwen
Copyright © Bompiani, 2019
USA Edition copyright ©
2020 CPL EDITIONS
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-941046-32-6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
For a Memory Culture Beyond Victims and Perpetrators.
By Michael Rothberg. 9
Introduction
What Went Wrong? 19
By Valentina Pisanty
Chapter I, The Duty of Memory. 31
Chapter II, The Discourse of History 75
Chapter III, Collective Memories 109
Chapter IV, New Cinema of the Shoah 153
Chapter V, The Spectacle of Evil 201
Chapter VI, Denial and Punishment 229
Appendix 263
End notes 285
Bibliography 307
Filmography 329
Index 335
Ciò che muta, si evolve, sperimenta derive e assestamenti non è dunque l’esigenza diffusa di confrontarsi con un evento così traumatico; ma piuttosto l’intreccio degli usi a cui la sua memoria è stata sottoposta, con l’effetto cumulativo di trasformare la Shoah in oggetto di devozione, collante ideologico, categoria di pensiero, prodotto di marketing e, all’occorrenza, strumento contundente.
Di tali usi questo libro tratta non con il fine precipuo di discriminare la memoria legittima da quella cattiva, ma di indagarne i dispositivi retorici e le logiche soggiacenti; di ricostruire i percorsi di trasformazione dell’evento storico in macchina mitologica, generatrice di sensi e di abusi ulteriori; di mostrare – secondo una prospettiva nuova – l’interazione conflittuale e tuttavia sorprendentemente integrata tra i tre principali abusi che oggi si contendono la gestione della memoria: la negazione, la banalizzazione, la sacralizzazione.
Tali sono le domande che vengono affrontate in questo volume che ha la forma e la struttura del manuale, ma in effetti è un libro con una tesi ben precisa che emerge in tutti i capitoli: dal segno si passa alla semiosi, dal dizionario all’enciclopedia, dalla struttura all’interpretazione e alle attività cognitive, nel tentativo di dare un seguito articolato alla semiotica interpretativa di Umberto Eco.
Son of Saul, offered a theoretically controversial approach to the subject of Holocaust representation, they did not raise debates comparable to those that accompanied the release of other homologous movies in previous decades. What is this lack of controversy symptomatic of and to what extent may it be attributed to a change in sensibility that is investing the memory of the Shoah? My hypothesis is that the phenomenon known as Holocaust fatigue is but the tip of a deeper transformation involving the institutionalization of Memory, on the one hand, and a gradual acknowledgement of the master narrative’s failure to encompass the diversely traumatic experiences we are currently struggling to make sense of, on the other.
“On Facts and Fiction: Analyzing Propaganda and Fake News in the 21st century”,
curated by Antonia Alampi and Warren Neidich.
Pariticipants: Isaac Julien, Federico Campagna, Chiara Cappelletto, Erminia dell’Oro, Chiara Figone, Gabriella Ghermandi, Jessika Khazrik, Valentina Pisanty, Corrado Sinigaglia and Tiziana Terranova
"Rumor to Delusion", a solo-exhibition by Warren Neidich on view at Zuecca Project Space, critically engages with issues concerning the construction of subjectivity and consciousness in our present moment by using the infamous "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory as its model. You may or may not remember how this fake news story, conceived and nurtured on Internet chat rooms and billboards, like reddit and 4chan, during the 2016 presidential campaign, went viral and potentially affected the electoral outcome. Taking this event as its starting point, “On Facts and Fiction: Analyzing Propaganda and Fake News in the 21st century” is a two-day program which concerns the concept, technologies of production and technological distribution of "fake-news", and particularly its its legacy as it applies to within the history of propaganda. Furthermore in particular we want to discuss its connection to right-wing populist movements in two very different socio-cultural contexts, namely Italy and the United States.
Firstly, the program will investigate the subtle and complex relations of fact and fiction, trying to unravel what has been defined as “post-truth society” in its present day context. Special interest will be placed upon the historical context and todays rise in far right populism in Italy, in which the program takes place. For instance, an examination of the publication "La Difesa della Razza" (1938-1943) will aim to uncover the analogies between the techniques used during Italy’s Fascist regime to promote and legitimize state racism and the colonial enterprise and present-day political strategies and narratives used by far-right movements in Italy and the US. Secondly, it will situate this discussion of fake news in the especially relevant left leaning Italian political philosophical movement of post-Workerism and Italian cognitive capitalism in its early and late stage. In the former condition it will discover the relationship of valorization and financialization to the emergent forms of capital production that are based on the fictive capacity of language to create engaging stories for the purposes of selling and marketing. Key here will be the relationship of valorization to the disruption of the sign and signifier as conducive to fake news. In the latter its connection to embodiment, performativity and sculpting the material brain will be emphasized, by exploring the notion of the plastic social brain. To quote Victoria Pitts-Taylor: “Although it is not framed as such in scientific accounts, the plastic, social brain also reveals neurobiology to be political - that is, capable of change and transformation, and open to social structures and their contestation.”
This will lead us to the third topic of the conference that concerns the metanarrative of the role of scientific enterprises in the production of truth. First we will embark on a discussion of the now debunked modernist scientific theories, such as those of Cesare Lombroso, who used anthropometry, craniometry and other such techniques to link criminal behavior and inherited congenital traits (ostensibly traceable to specific body parts and regions of the brain). Then we will look at neuro-scientific theories important today, like neural plasticity and epigenesis, to understand the body as a site upon which contested discourses are at play. One that emancipates rather then normalizes a diverse and multiplicitous subject. Twenty years from now will we view these recent attempts with the same skepticism we view earlier attempts to use scientific theories to engage with humanism?
The symposium will include presentations, readings, debates and performances from an heterogeneous array of specialists from the field of art, philosophy neuroscience, critical theory and media to produce a unique perspective with which to address the crisis of truth in its present features.
di Bergamo. She is the author of several monographs in Italian on the
uses and abuses of Holocaust memory, including L’irritante questione
delle camere a gas: logica del negazionismo (Milan: Bompiani, 1998 [2nd rev.
ed. 2014]) and Abusi di memoria: negare, sacralizzare, banalizzare la Shoah
(Milan: Bompiani, 2012). She has also published extensively on the
racist and antisemitic fascist journal La difesa della razza, including
Educare all’odio: La difesa della razza (Milan: Motta, 2003) and La difesa
della razza: Antologia 1938-1943 (Milan: Bompiani, 2006). Her latest book
The Guardians of Memory and the Return of the Xenophobic Right (New
York: Centro Primo Levi Editions, 2021) is a provocative investigation
of the weaknesses of dominant Holocaust memory culture, which often
ends up being appropriated by illiberal and xenophobic forces.