In the course of history, the process of creating the image of the “enemy”, has often taken place among people of the same nationality, but strategies aimed at the construction of external enemies were equally widespread. If anti-soviet rhetoric, for instance, occupied a central place in Western countries’ public debates, anti-American sentiments have manifested in different shapes and variants in several geographical areas. This monographic issue intends to contribute to the creation of a space of historiographical debate on “hatred and enemy”, inevitably wide and complex, through the reconstruction of specific case studies that analyze the different shapes and forms taken by these phenomena in different times and places. 

Issues Coordinators

Editor

• Laura Fotia

Guest Editor

• Francesco Davide Ragno

Presentation

In the collection of essays entitled “Inventing the enemy” Umberto Eco proposed a “phenomenology” of hatred, highlighting how, in different periods and places, it had represented a cement to build the unity of a group or of a nation, and how it had been instrumental in the construction of specific categories of “enemies” through the centuries (Eco 2012). In the course of history, the process of creating the image of the “enemy”, has often taken place among people of the same nationality, but strategies aimed at the construction of external enemies were equally widespread. If anti-soviet rhetoric, for instance, occupied a central place in Western countries’ public debates, anti-American sentiments have manifested in different shapes and variants in several geographical areas.

Practices aimed at creating terror and fear in the population for political purposes, repressive policies based on discriminatory assumptions, propaganda strategies aimed at identify enemy – whether internal or external to the community of concern –, have spanned centuries and continents, but reached unprecedented levels during the Twentieth century. The articulation of these strategies cannot be considered exclusively the purview of governments, but also of political parties, movements and even prominent intellectuals.

This monographic issue intends to contribute to the creation of a space of historiographical debate on “hatred and enemy”, inevitably wide and complex, through the reconstruction of specific case studies that analyze the different shapes and forms taken by these phenomena in different times andplaces. Although the geographical reference horizon adopted will be quite broad, the analysis will mainly focus on Africa, Latin America and south-east Asia, regions that were transversally crossed by extreme forms of enemy-construction processes during the twentieth century. Specifically, the book will analyze the period between the end of the World War I and the end of the Cold War.

Within this frame, interested scholar are invited to send proposals for contributions relating to these macro-topics:

• Processes of construction of the image of the “internal” or “external” enemy in national and transnational contexts;
• Creation of anti-US imageries;
• Practices to contrast hate policies (forms of denunciation, solidarity networks, etc.).

Preliminary Bibliography

• ANIDJAR, Gil, The Jew, the Arab: a history of the enemy, Palo Alto, Stanford University Press, 2003.
• BORRERO FERNANDEZ, Mercedes et al., El miedo en la Historia, Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, 2013.
• CAMMARANO, Fulvio, «Delegitimization: A Useful Category for Political History», in Ricerche di Storia Politica, 20, Special Issue, 2017, pp. 65-73.
• COREY, Robin, Fear. The History of a Political Idea, New York, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• ECO, Umberto, Costruire il nemico e altri scritti occasionali, Milano, Bompiani, 2012.
• FRANCO, Marina, Un enemigo para la Nación. Orden interno, violencia y “subversión”, 1973-1986, Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2012.
• McPHERSON, Alan, (ed.), Anti-americanism in Latin America and the Caribbean, Vol. 3., New York, Berghahn Books, 2006.
• McPHERSON, Alan, Yankee No!., Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2009.
• POWELL, Philip Wayne, Tree of Hate: Propaganda and the Prejudices Affecting United States Relations With the Hispanic World, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2008.
• ZANATTA, Loris, «La sindrome del cavallo di Troia: l’immagine del nemico interno nella storia dell’America latina», in Storia e problemi contemporanei, XVII, 35, 2004, pp. 107-135.
• La delegittimazione politica nell’età contemporanea, 5 voll., Roma, Viella, 2016-2018.

Submission Guidelines

Interested authors should submit an abstract of 250 words or less (maximum 1000 characters), a short bio of max 100 words (maximum 500 characters) and contact information by email attachment to redazione.diacronie@hotmail.it 

by April 30 2020.

The abstract must include information about the topic, methodology and expected results of the research. Standard article should generally not exceed 6.000 words (paper length in words: between 35.000 and 50.000 characters, spaces included) and must respect the journal style.

To prepare your manuscript please follow the instructions: here.

Authors will be notified whether their proposal has been accepted or not by May 15 2020. The complete article must be submitted by August 1 2020. All proposals will be subjected to a double-blind peer review. Publication of this issue is scheduled for March 2021.

Abstracts and articles may be submitted in Italian, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Contributions in Portuguese will be translated into Italian by the editorial board.

For any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: redazione.diacronie@hotmail.it