The article presents the initial results of research using statistical analysis to demonstrate the emergence of a new meaning of the idiomatic expression italiani brava gente linked to the history of the Italian colonialism. The idiomatic expression, who comes from the title of a 1964 by director De Santis (Italiani, brava gente), revives the myth of Italians who, unlike their Germans allies in the Second World War, stood out for their sense of good-naturedness and humanity, their inability to carry out atrocities in war, and their lack of racism and xenophobia. Starting from 2005, with the publication of a book by the historian Angelo Del Boca (Italiani, brava gente?), the idiomatic expression has definitively acquired a new meaning that links it in a critical sense to the history of Italian colonialism. To demonstrate the emergence of this new meaning, a collection of 292 articles from the historical archive of the newspaper «la Repubblica» where the idiomatic expression appears was analysed. The collection was divided into two sections: in the first, articles published from 1984 to 2005; in the second, articles produced from 2005 (after the edition of Del Boca’s book) to 31 October 2023. The results highlight that in the second group, there is a greater number of articles in which the idiomatic expression with the new meaning is used, and there is a greater frequency of words with lexical bases linked to the semantic field of Italian colonialism. This is preliminary research wich, despite already having a statistical value, will later be expanded with the consideration of other material, linked as well to the publishing sector.

ITALIANI BRAVA GENTE Un modo di dire legato al colonialismo italiano?

Paolo Miccoli
2024-01-01

Abstract

The article presents the initial results of research using statistical analysis to demonstrate the emergence of a new meaning of the idiomatic expression italiani brava gente linked to the history of the Italian colonialism. The idiomatic expression, who comes from the title of a 1964 by director De Santis (Italiani, brava gente), revives the myth of Italians who, unlike their Germans allies in the Second World War, stood out for their sense of good-naturedness and humanity, their inability to carry out atrocities in war, and their lack of racism and xenophobia. Starting from 2005, with the publication of a book by the historian Angelo Del Boca (Italiani, brava gente?), the idiomatic expression has definitively acquired a new meaning that links it in a critical sense to the history of Italian colonialism. To demonstrate the emergence of this new meaning, a collection of 292 articles from the historical archive of the newspaper «la Repubblica» where the idiomatic expression appears was analysed. The collection was divided into two sections: in the first, articles published from 1984 to 2005; in the second, articles produced from 2005 (after the edition of Del Boca’s book) to 31 October 2023. The results highlight that in the second group, there is a greater number of articles in which the idiomatic expression with the new meaning is used, and there is a greater frequency of words with lexical bases linked to the semantic field of Italian colonialism. This is preliminary research wich, despite already having a statistical value, will later be expanded with the consideration of other material, linked as well to the publishing sector.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11574/232020
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