The construction of national identity in textbooks for Italian schools abroad: the case of Brazil between the two World War

This contribution aimss to enlighten the dynamics of the process of ethnic-identitary construction of Italian immigrants and descendents in Brazil in the period between the two World Wars. In the context of the crisis of liberal institutions and of the ascent and consolidation of the Fascist totalitarianism, the construction of national identity represented a primary goal for Italian political and administrative summits. As part of the actions of intervention established for Italian schools abroad, we intend to explore one of the aspects of school cultures that received more attention by the liberal and Fascist ruling elites: the textbooks that would sustain the development of the national identity abroad. Our area of analysis is the large and complex one of Brazil, regarding which a specific attention developed precisely in the first years of the 1920s. Our contribution intends to verify the lines of continuity and discontinuity in terms of the policies adopted by the leaders of the Ministries for the diffusion of textbooks in Italian schools abroad, as well as in terms of the educational models proposed in the textbooks employed in Brazil, always aiming to support the Italian national identity during this significant moment of political transition.