Il pieno e il vuoto: Visual Representations of Africa in Italian Accounts of Colonial Experiences*.

The article examines the role played by photographs and other kinds of illustrations in accounts written by Italian travellers to Africa from the beginning of Italy's colonial experience till today. Using sample publications from Liberal Italy, the years of Fascism, and the post-colonial period, it analyses the way in which texts and images interact, constructing complex representations of people and places which cannot be reduced to any 'realist' and 'factual' interpretation. The insistence on particular images as well as the absence of others played a key role in producing representations which responded to the needs of propaganda, or occasionally managed to signal the author's self-distancing from the goals and practices of Italy's colonial politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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