"Luca Bussotti's book is a mandatory reference that identifies and zooms into the multilayered racism that persists in Italy's arts, music, cinema, and popular culture. It is a must-read for anyone interested in colonial stereotypes, fascist culture, and critical cultural studies."

Marçal de Menezes Paredes, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul

The Image of Africa in Italian Popular Music proposes an innovative, fresh, provocative study, delving inside the common mentality of Italians, through their popular music and the way it has represented Africa and Africans. Italian music has largely followed national history, representing Africa as a mere object, from an inferior and inferiorized land of conquest to a slow process of decolonization of this image, which began around the 1980s and culminated with the irruption of second-generation Afro-Italian rappers into the Italian music scene. Through a careful analysis of the lyrics that is never detached from the historical context and sociological implications, the author shows how it was only with second-generation Afro-Italian rappers that provincial Italy had to come to terms with its present and its past. This musical movement gave rise to cultural, social and political debates that went far beyond the mere fact of music, involving other types of art, as well as proposing changes - such a new citizenship law - that are still struggling to take hold. Far beyond the image of ‘Italians as good people’, these rappers challenge us on a complex and slippery terrain: the construction of a new Italianness, overcoming clichés and stereotypes that one part of the country stubbornly continues to defend.
Les mer
The Image of Africa in Italian Popular Music is an innovative, well-documented and provocative study which explains the how Africa and Africans are portrayed in Italian music, and how African-Italian musicians contribute to the decolonization of Italian music and became the new protagonists of the public life of an entire European nation.
Les mer

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. Theoretical Approach
Chapter 2. Methodology
Chapter 3. A Short Overview on the Image of Africa in Italian Culture: From Dante to the Dawn of Colonialism
Chapter 4. A First Approach to Africa: Popular Italian Music at the Beginning of Colonialism (1888-1912)
Chapter 5. Italian Popular Music in the Face of Fascist Colonialism
Chapter 6. The Representation of Africa after the Second World War: Africa as Absence (1940s-1970s)
Chapter 7. A Long Transition: From Africa as Metaphor to Africa as Reality (1980s-2000s)
Chapter 8. Decolonizing the Approach: Africa as a Subject (from 2000 to the present)
Chapter 9. After the 2G Network: The Second Generation Rappers between Commitment and Individualism
Chapter 10. Besides the African-Italia Rappers: The Representation of Africa between Continuity and Innovation
Final Remarks
References
About the Author

Les mer
The Image of Africa in Italian Popular Music is an innovative, well-documented and provocative study which explains the how Africa and Africans are portrayed in Italian music, and how African-Italian musicians contribute to the decolonization of Italian music and became the new protagonists of the public life of an entire European nation.
Les mer
This is the first book analyzing the colonized viewpoint of Africa and African people in Italian popular music, from early colonialism to the present day. The book also studies how Afro-Italian rappers became the new protagonists in Italian music and culture, and throughout Europe.
Les mer

This series is dedicated to the memory of Professor David R. Dickens, who was a founding co-editor. This series focuses on the contemporary significance of the work of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. While almost one hundred years have passed since it was first established, the work of the members of the Frankfurt School is today highly relevant for the analysis and understanding of a broad range of contemporary issues. Just as in the period when the original members of the Frankfurt school were conducting their work, we now face a series of complex challenges due to the number of large-scale historical changes. Many of these are the result of new technologies that, rather than leading to emancipation, have resulted in new forms of domination and divisiveness. All around the globe we are witnessing a new round of war and conflict, the rise of fascism, and impending environmental catastrophe. We also see the heightening of interpersonal conflicts based on racial and ethnic, sexual, regional, and ideological differences. The very technologies that promised to bring us all together have only amplified and monetized these divisions through the use of bots, algorithms, and other sophisticated digital tools. To make matters worse, we see a rise in extremist conspiracy theories, pseudoscientific propaganda, and other forms of misinformation and disinformation that only make matters worse. The books published in the series will address this broad range of concern by employing and updating the work of the Frankfurt School. In so doing we hope to produce a body of work that makes both a theoretical and substantive contribution to the analysis of contemporary social life. We thus invite submissions from those who exemplify Marx’s observation that, 'the philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however is to change it.' Moreover, because of the complexity of issues that we face, we welcome approaches that combine other frameworks with the Frankfurt School to create a more robust understanding of the social world. Potential topics include but are not limited to: • Social Media and Everyday Life• Rising Authoritarianism • 'Fake' and 'Alternative' News • Conspiracy Theories • Harm to Racial & Sexual Minorities• Anti-Scientific Sentiment• Environmental Collapse• Extremist Groups• Satanic Panics and Superstion • Critical Algorithms• Doxxing and Trolling • Culture Wars• Misinformation• Disinformation• Reactionary Politics• Instrumental Reason• Social Media Influencers• Live Streaming • Crypto Currency• The Meta-Verse• The Experience Industry

Series Editor: Christopher T. Conner with Angelique Dickens

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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781666971729
Publisert
2025-10-30
Utgiver
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

Luca Bussotti is Professor at the Technical University of Mozambique, with teaching experiences in Italy, Portugal, Brazil and Mozambique. He has matured a long experience in Italian as well as in African Studies, privileging an approach centered on political and cultural analysis. He is the author of a complete history of Italian citizenship (La cittadinanza degli italiani, Angeli, 2002), of the book Minoranze e multiculturalismo nell’Italia contemporanea (IBIS, 2013), on the formation of a multicultural society in Italy and in Europe, of a study on the U.S. policy in Austral Africa during the Cold War (Dal sabotaggio alla cooperazione, printed by the University of Trieste, Italy, 2024) and (with Gianfranco Giovannone) of a book on diversified cultural aspects of Africa (Sguardi sull’Africa, IBIS, 2024). He has also edited about 20 books and written almost 100 articles in international journals, including about 10 on issues related to music, in Africa as well as in Italy.