Catania: Catania use (and abuse) of public history (2)
Again in terms of use (and abuse) of public history I'd like to point out the fiction in two episodes aired on Sunday, Oct. 31 Rai and Monday, November 1.
The series is titled "Under the sky of Rome" and the center is the figure of Pope Pius XII in the dramatic days of the occupation of Rome by the Nazis.
There would be many things to say about this (and other) fiction. How to succeed in to pass this common sense of history we were talking about in class, often very far from the true historical consciousness. This is the result of careful study, research objective and non-ideological discussions. In short is made of shades of gray and doubt. What goes on TV (especially in fiction with historical background) and sometimes the film is instead a historical reconstruction in bright colors, everything is where everything is black or white, there is no room for doubt, deep and complex reasoning.
In particular, with regard to the drama of last night to point out to those who have the patience to read an interesting article I found on the internet that analyzes the fiction from the point of view of visual language but from the point of view of content: http://www.close-up.it/spip.php?article6304.
Also: http://moked.it/blog/2010/11/02/emiliano-perra-una-guida-ragionata-alla-visione-del-film/
For those who want instead to know much more and better on picture Pius XII, point out the beautiful book by Giovanni Miccoli, I dilemmmi and the silence of Pius XII, Bur, 2007: http://www.liberonweb.com/asp/libro.asp?ISBN=8817007676
