Nostalgia, appeal, and pride. The Legacy of Lybian Landscape in Visual and Written Narratives of the Italian “Fourth Shore” in the 1930s

Virginia Magnaghi, Ph.D.

Thanks to the support of the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Virginia Magnaghi’s current research project is dedicated to how Italians represented Libya, and in particular its landscape, both natural and built, during the 1930s. The project is based on the comparative analysis of many different materials, such as photographs, postcards, easel and mural paintings, videos, sketches, advertising, but also and equally important on written sources such as articles, books and letters. Thus, the main protagonists of this research are Italian intellectuals, mostly writers, journalists, painters, and art critics, who under Fascism had a key role in the strategic cultural operation organized by the regime to narrate Libya to Italians.

More in general, this research is rooted in the idea of further exploring landscape as a key methodological tool when addressing the intersecting issues of self representation, identity and its negotiation, colonialism and racism, since its representation can become a depository for all these elements.