The Concept of Resistance in Italy

Book excerpt: The Concept of Resistance in Italy brings together experts from different fields to reflect in a new, comprehensive critical approach, on an event that has shaped the young Italian nation from the onset of Fascism in the early 20s. Although grounded in the Italian context, its theoretical frameworks, provided by the variety of disciplines involved in the volume, will prove beneficial for any critical discourse on the concept of resistance nowadays. Moving from a reflection on the legacy of the Italian Resistance to Fascism and the Resistance Movement born in the latest years of WWII, when Italy witnessed the presence on its territory of foreign troops from opposite corners, and was involved in a Civil War at the very same time, this collection reassesses the concept of Resistance within the Italian 20th and 21st century cultural context, moving beyond historical perspectives. The multidisciplinary scope allows for an historical, philosophical and artistic exploration of the concrete actions that define resistance to Fascism, and the Resistance Movement during WWII, their representations in literature, cinema and music, and the more abstract philosophical concept of Resistance in a rapidly changing globalized world, with oppressive political orders, new global economic structures, and emerging new philosophical fields.