Invisible victims: The portrait of women and their daily issues in the Luce cinema newsreels during the Second World War (1939-1945)

Authors

  • Carlota Coronado Ruiz Universidad Complutense de Madrid

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v6i11.249

Keywords:

Second World War, Italy, Woman, Newsreel, Cinema

Abstract

The Second World War brought about a number of consequences and social changes that left its mark in Italy: the daily lives of the civilian population was disrupted by continuous bombings and hunger. Civilians, especially women, had to adapt to the social changes: as well as mobilise themselves, Italian women had to suffer and face the difficulties of day to day survival. This article analyses how the Luce cinema newsreels portrayed these issues, focusing on the image depicted by the participation of women on the home front.

There are other studies about the portrayal of women in cinema during both the fascist and Franco regimes, but these focus primarily on gender stereotypes spread by fascist propaganda. This article, however, focuses on the Second World War, and especially on the everyday lives of the civilian population. It addresses in depth the consequences of the war on the daily lives of Italian women and this presents a new angle to previous studies which focused specifically on the depiction of the Second World War in the Luce newsreels. It also makes a comparative study of the presentation of these topics in the Italian media - especially the press- as well as the female models in war propaganda in countries involved in the conflict such us Germany.

In order to explore these ideas, this article makes a quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of the Luce newsreels, the main source used. The newsreels were an important propaganda tool given that their screening was compulsory and they held the monopoly on audiovisual communication during those years. This analysis reveals the propaganda intentions of the Mussolini regime: military aspects take centre stage, death is censored, news about bombings or food shortages are avoided. This results in an image of the war far removed from the reality lived by civilians, and in particular, by women.

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Author Biography

  • Carlota Coronado Ruiz, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Carlota Coronado Ruiz es licenciada en Comunicación Audiovisual y Doctora en Periodismo. En la actualidad es Profesora en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Información, Departamento de Historia de la Comunicación Social de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Ha participado como investigadora en varios proyectos financiados por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación relacionados con el estudio del cine y la televisión. Entre ellos se encuentran Televisión y memoria. Estrategias de representación de la guerra civil y la transición o Memorias en segundo grado: Posmemoria de la Guerra Civil, el franquismo y la transición democrática.

    Es autora de varios estudios sobre la historia del cine italiano y su público, la relación entre Historia y cine, así como sobre las representaciones de género en el cine y la televisión. En los últimos años su trabajo se ha centrado en el estudio de la representación de la historia en la televisión.

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Published

2017-06-15

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 11 (2017): Guerra y competencia entre Estados en el Mediterráneo Medieval (siglos XIV-XV)

Section

Estudios

License

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How to Cite

Invisible victims: The portrait of women and their daily issues in the Luce cinema newsreels during the Second World War (1939-1945). (2017). Revista Universitaria De Historia Militar, 6(11), 239-257. https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v6i11.249

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