Three new readings of the clandestine press in occupied Bologna

Dunne, Francis (2023). Three new readings of the clandestine press in occupied Bologna. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

This dissertation analyses five newspapers linked to the main antifascist political parties in the strategically important city of Bologna, Italy, between 1943 and 1945, the period of the Second World War in which the country was occupied by the German army.

The propaganda output was critical to the work of Resistance movements across Europe in providing an alternative voice to that of the German-controlled press and convincing ordinary citizens to join the struggle for liberation from the Nazis. In the 1960s, the newspapers that had been produced in occupied Bologna were collated by local historians Luciano Bergonzini, Luigi Arbizzani, Nazario Sauro Onofri and Paolo Montanari, along with the personal testimonies of hundreds of partisans. The newspaper output was analysed in detail by Arbizzani and Onofri in 1966. The newspaper output of political parties linked to the Resistance in other Italian cities was analysed by Frank Rosengarten in 1968. Virtually nothing analysing the content of these newspapers has been published since.

This dissertation proposes three new readings of those newspapers through the spectrum of historiography produced from the 1990s onwards and through a cross-referencing of previously available biographical material which has not been conducted to date.

These three readings focus on: the extent to which the local communist newspaper, L’Unità, can be considered an expression of Soviet propaganda and the implications of this for the local newspaper output; the high degree of interconnectedness between the activities of those involved in producing newspapers as well as the paramilitary campaign; and the almost complete absence of references to the Jews in the newspapers of the local antifascist parties.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.A.

Supervisor(s):