GRANT
Germany’s and Italy’s Colonial Past: A New Voice in Collective Memory
Associate Professor Jessica Ortner has received more than DKK 6 million from Independent Research Fund Denmark for a project on German and Italian postcolonial literature.
The project "Revival of Traumatic Pasts: Colonization, Nazism and Fascism in contemporary German and Italian fiction and memory activism" examines how German and Italian postcolonial literature and activism draw attention to the two nations' respective pasts as colonial powers – a past that both countries have only recently begun to acknowledge.
The belated acknowledgment of a colonial past is partly due to the prominance of other crimes in the collective memory and self-understanding of these countries: in Germany, the Holocaust has been debated nationally for several decades, as has the memory of fascism in Italy. Both countries, however also had colonies on the African continent, and the recognition of colonial crimes will lead to a rethinking of countries' collective memory.
Postcolonial literature contributes to a discussion with in Germany and Italy
The project examines postcolonial literature, activism and activist actions linked to questions of memory and responsibility as contemporary ways in which the past of Germany and Italy is negotiated/rethought. Postcolonial literature represents the marginalized memory of the colonial past in these countries, revealing connections between colonialism, Nazism and fascism, while activists struggle to demolish or alter concrete traces of colonialism in the cityscape. In this way, postcolonial literature and activism contribute to a discussion of these countries' ethical responsibilities today.