In the Name of Italy: Nation, Family, and Patriotism in a Fascist Court

288 Pages·2012·3.822 MB·English

by  Maura Hametz

In the Name of Italy

In the Name of Italy
nation, family, and patriotism
in a fascist court
Maura E. Hametz
fordham university press
New York 2012
Frontispiece: Map of Luigia Paulovich’s Italy, 1930– 32
Copyright © 2012 Fordham University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Hametz, Maura Elise.
In the name of Italy : nation, family, and patriotism in a fascist
court / Maura E. Hametz.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 8232- 4339- 6 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Barbarovich Paulovich, Luigia. 2. Trials— Italy—Trieste.
3. Italianization. 4. Administrative courts— Italy. 5. Law—
Political aspects— Italy. 6. Fascism— Italy. 7. Italy—P olitics and
government—1922– 1945. 8. National characteristics, Italian.
9. Trieste (Italy)—History—1918– I. Title.
KKH46.B37H36 2012
342.4508'5—dc23
2012002895
Printed in the United States of America
14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
Contents
Abbreviations and Name Correspondences vii
Ac know ledg ments ix
Introduction 1
1 Inculcating Italianità 19
2 Power and Justice 50
3 Legislating Italianità 72
4 The Family in Question 97
5 A Citizen Seeking Justice 118
6 A Fascist Woman? 142
7 A Matter of Law 171
Conclusion 194
Notes 211
Bibliography 253
Index 271
For Todd,
Jonathan, and Zachary
and
For my parents—
My mother, who taught me what a strong woman can do and
My father, who inspired my fascination with the law
Abbreviations and Name Correspondences
Rome, ACS, CdS - Sez. IV Rome, Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Consiglio
di stato - Sezione quarta: Giurisdizionale
Rome, ACS, PCM, UCNP Rome, Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Presidenza
consiglio dei ministri, Uffi cio centrale per le
nuove provincie
Rome, ACS, SPDCR Rome, Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Segreteria
particolare del Duce: Carteggio riservato
TS, AdS, CGCVG Trieste, Archivio di Stato, Commissariato
Generale Civile per la Venezia Giulia
TS, AdS- PPT/DI Trieste, Archivio di Stato, Prefettura della
Provincia di Trieste, Divisione I: Riduzione
Cognomi
TS, AdS, Pref. Gab. Trieste, Archivio di Stato, Prefettura di Trieste,
Gabinetto (1923– 52)
TS, BC, Racc. Pat. Trieste, Biblioteca Civica, Raccolta patria
Basovizza Bazovica (Sl.)
Brazza Brac (Cr.)
Carso Karst (Ge.), Kras (Sl.)
Cattaro Kotor (Mo.)
Fiume Rijeka (Cr.)
Grado Gradež (Sl.)
Istria Istra (Cr. and Sl.)
Pirano Piran (Sl.)
Pola Pula (Cr.)
Postumia Postojna (Sl.), Adelsberg (Ge.)
Ragusa Dubrovnik (Cr.)
San Pietro della Brazza Supetar, Brac (Cr.)
Sebenico Šibenik, (Cr.)
Spalato Split (Cr.)
Trieste Trst (Sl.), Triest (Ge.)
Venezia Giulia Julijska krajina (Sl. and Cr.), Julian March (En.)
Zara Zadar (Cr.)
Languages indicated in parentheses are: Croatian (Cr.), Eng lish (En.),
German (Ge.), Montenegrin (Mo.), and Slovene (Sl.).
Ac know ledg ments
Over the course of more than a de cade since my discovery of Luigia Paulo-
vich’s brush with the fascist court, I have incurred innumerable debts in
bringing her story and this book to light. A summer research fellowship
in 2006 and sabbatical semester in the spring of 2010 from the College of
Arts and Letters and Old Dominion University provided assistance that
enabled me to complete the project.
The staff at the archives and libraries has been exceedingly patient and
kind. At the Archivio di stato Trieste, where the entire staff has made
me feel welcome, Grazia Tatò, Pierpaolo Dorsi, and Carla Triadan offered
invaluable assistance. At the Archivio centrale dello stato, Mariapina Di
Simone helped me to navigate labyrinthine fi les to uncover evidence re-
lating to the Paulovich case and naming practices in Trieste. My work
would have been impossible without the help of Beverly Barco, Stuart
Frazer, and the Perry Library Interlibrary Loan staff at Old Dominion
University.
Colleagues and friends have offered assistance, suggestions, and timely
advice and criticism along the way. Alexander De Grand and Nancy M.
Wingfi eld have been exceedingly generous in reading the manuscript and
offering unfl inching support for this project and my work. Ivan W.
Hametz and Sanja Juric read early drafts and offered keen legal eyes.
Alice Kelikian inspired me to take a closer look at women in fascist
Italy. John Davis, Judith Szapor, Marina Calloni, Tullia Catalan, Marta
Petrusewicz, Marla Stone, and Mia Fuller helped to shape my thinking
on gender issues in interwar Italy and assisted with the project along the
way. The book has benefi ted from the observations, questions, and criti-
cisms raised by audiences with whom I have shared the Pauloviches’ story
from the Conference on Women, Gender, and the Extreme Right or ga-
nized by Kevin Passmore at Cardiff University in 2001 to the Conference
on the Culture of Judicial In de pen dence org an ized by Shimon Shetreet at
x ac knowl edg ments
the University of Vienna in 2011. Among others, I wish to thank Jože
Pirjevec, Marion Kaplan, Ruth Ben- Ghiat, Andrea Pëto, Larry Wolff, Mark
Mazower, Cora Granata, Roland Sarti, and Agatha Schwartz for their
invitations to present my work. Colleagues at Old Dominion University
including Austin Jersild, Heidi Schlipphacke, Jane Merritt, Michael Car-
hart, Kathy Pearson, Erin Jordan, Annette Finley-C roswhite, and Chandra
de Silva provided invaluable support.
Research in Italy would have been impossible without the assistance,
friendship, and hospitality of Michela Bassanese and the Bassanese
family, Silvia Cotroneo, Maurizio Borelli, Riccardo Kriscjak, Barbara
Giordano, Marina Petronio, Silvio Delbello, Roberto Ambrosi, and Rita
Braico.
No book can be published without editorial support and technical
assistance. At Fordham University Press, Fredric Nachbaur offered enthu-
siastic support for the project, William Cerbone and Katie Sweeney of-
fered gracious assistance, and Michael Koch edited the manuscript with
a keen eye. I am grateful to Donald K. Emminger at Old Dominion Uni-
versity who designed the map.
I have received assistance and encouragement from all of these indi-
viduals and from unnamed others, to whom I offer heartfelt thanks. In
spite of their best efforts, no project ever appears quite fi nished to the
author, and obviously responsibility for the contents of the book and any
shortcomings rest with the author.