Italy's Sea: Empire and Nation in the Mediterranean, 1895-1945

320 Pages·2020·7.886 MB·English

by  Valerie McGuire

Transnational Italian Cultures
Series editors:
Dr Emma Bond, University of St Andrews
Professor Derek Duncan, University of St Andrews
Transnational Italian Cultures will publish the best research in the expanding
field of postcolonial, global and transnational Italian studies and aim to set a
new agenda for academic research on what constitutes Italian culture today.
As such, it will move beyond the physical borders of the peninsula as well as
identifying existing or evolving transnational presences within the nation
in order to reflect the vibrant and complex make-up of today’s global Italy.
Privileging a cultural studies perspective with an emphasis on the analysis
of textual production, the series focuses primarily on the contemporary
context but will also include work on earlier periods informed by current
postcolonial/transnational methodology.
Italy’s Sea
Empire and Nation
in the Mediterranean, 1895–1945
Valerie McGuire

LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published 2020 by
Liverpool University Press
4 Cambridge Street
Liverpool
L69 7ZU
Copyright © 2020 Valerie McGuire
The right of Valerie McGuire to be identified as the author of this book
has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data
A British Library CIP record is available
ISBN 978-1-80034-800-4 cased
ISBN 978-1-80034-600-0 epdf
Typeset by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
For Jason and Elsa.

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: Europe’s Southern Question 1
1. Nationalists and the Mediterranean in the Liberal Era 37
2. Touring Italian Rhodes 89
3. Belonging in the Archipelago: Nation, Race, and Citizenship 141
4. Everyday Fascism in the Aegean 195
Conclusion: Postcolonial Returns 247
Bibliography 263
Index 285

List of Illustrations
From Giorgio Roletto, Rodi: La funzione imperiale nel Mediterraneo
Orientale (Milan: Istituto Fascista dell’Africa Orientale, 1939)
p. 108 © National Library of Florence. xvii
Figure 0.1: Photograph from above of Porto Lago (today Lakkhi), a
model city built for the Italian navy base © Islands of Exile:
The Case of Leros (www.leros-project.com). 5
Figure 0.2: Former Italian aviators’ barracks in Lakki (Caserma Avieri),
Leros, later a mental sanatorium, and repurposed as a refugee camp
from 2014–18 © Islands of Exile: The Case of Leros
(www.leros-project.com). 6
Figure 1.1: Cover illustration of La Domenica del Corriere, June 7–9, 1912.
The caption says, “The events of the Italo-Turkish War: the arrival in
Naples of Italians, especially workers, expelled by Turkish reprisals”
© Biblioteca Marucelliana. 73
Figure 2.1: Rhodes shoreline circa 1930 © Archive Touring Club
Italiano. 102

Figure 2.2: Governor’s Palace in Rhodes, circa 1928 © Archive

Touring Club Italiano. 103
Figure 2.3: Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy. Photo: Valerie McGuire. 103

Figure 2.4: Promotional image of the New Market © Archive Touring
Club Italiano. 105
x Italy’s Sea
Figure 2.5: New Market and the Palace of the Knights of St. John in
vertical communication and juxtaposition © Archive Touring
Club Italiano. 106
Figure 2.6: Architectural drawing of the Kalithea Baths © General
State Archives of Greece, Department of Rhodes. 110
Figure 2.7: Interior of the Bath of Soliman, circa 1928, Rhodes, Greece.
Photo: General State Archives of Greece, Department of Rhodes. 111
Figure 2.8: “Le capitali del mondo: Isole dell’egeo RODI.” Cover of a
1926 guidebook featuring Turkish monuments in the background
© Archive Touring Club Italiano. 114
Figure 2.9: At the port of Rhodes, a fisherman retrieves the cross and
emerges from the sea; festival of the Benediction of the Waters
© Archive Touring Club Italiano. 117
Figure 2.10: “The characters of a village of inner-Rhodes” (“Le
personalità di un villaggio nell’interno di Rodi”), p. 395 of
Le colonie, Rodi, e le isole italiane dell’Egeo © Archive Touring
Club Italiano. 118
Figure 2.11: The Jewish Quarter with Ottoman-era balconies
© Archive Touring Club Italiano. 120
Figure 2.12: Inside the monumental zone of Rhodes, interior view
of the medieval city gates, as seen from the Turkish quarter, after
Italian renovation and reconstruction circa 1930 © Archive
Touring Club Italiano. 120
Figure 2.13: Local Greek woman in Rhodes encounters Italian tourist,
circa 1927 © Archive Touring Club Italiano. 123
Figure 2.14: “Peasant woman of Rhodes” (“Contadina rodiota”).
Photo: Ardito Desio and Giuseppe Stefanini, Le colonie, Rodi, e le
isole italiane dell’Egeo (Turin: Unione Tipografico Editrice, 1928),
p. 405 © Archive of the Touring Club Italiano. 123
Figure 2.15: Stills from “Il quartiere turco,” Rhodes, 1924–31,
produced and distributed by Istituto Nazionale LUCE. Photo
at 19:08–20:10 © Archivio LUCE. 124

Figure 2.16: A Turkish woman replaces her veil at the request of the

filmmaker, Rhodes, 1924–31, produced and distributed by Istituto
Nazionale LUCE. Photo at 20:10–20:20 © Archivio LUCE. 125