Synopsis John Bull's Italian Snakes and Ladders by : Annemarie McAllister
This book examines representations of Italy and Italians in the mid-nineteenth century and the uses made of them by English writers and readers. Italians were shown on the one hand as despised public nuisances, personified by organ grinders, but were also depicted in the most glamorous and fashionable settings such as opera houses. The range of meanings accorded to the sign â ~Italianâ (TM) was vast and this is the source of the title metaphor: as John Bull played his Italian Snakes and Ladders, his self esteem and self-image waxed and waned correspondingly. In tracing this, the study examines how and why Italy operated as an important mechanism in the construction of â ~Englishnessâ (TM), and the factors combining to make the mid-nineteenth century such a crucial period. The versions of â ~Italiannessâ (TM) in circulation established an iconography of â ~the Italianâ (TM), emblematic representations which could be repeated or alluded to as a taxonomy, building up a complex map of discourses about Italy. Sometimes these might conflict, or they may be traced as combining to create a field of prejudice as, for example, the construction of Italians as primitive, closer to nature, and more instinctive. Such a view could shade either into ideas of dirtiness, disreputability and evil or, conversely, into Italy as a site of unspoilt, â ~naturalâ (TM) bliss. The study focuses particularly on the middle-class male reader and traces reasons for, and advantages conferred by, the circulation of such myths. Masculinity, nationality and class positioning can be seen as fragile walls to the edifice of self-esteem, supporting each other from similar foundations. The sources for analysis are chosen with this readership in mind; there is a wide range of texts from high and popular culture, including contemporary periodicals, and a key feature is the central use of visual texts in the argument, with over fifty illustrations. Italy, and Italians, can be seen to have held an important place in Victorian self-fashioning. Annemarie McAllisterâ (TM)s book on the representation of Italian culture in the nineteenth century draws on both a range of cultural theory and a wide diversity of sources to suggest some of the ways in which stereotypes and popular perceptions were constructed and used within Victorian society. Particularly compelling and original is her analysis of music as a site for building popular beliefs and assumptions about Italy and its people, but her study includes such topics as Italian history, gender, and sensuality as the focus for debate. McAllisterâ (TM)s use of illustrations, and her detailed knowledge of the illustrated press, offer original and telling ways into the constructions of national identities so central to the Victorian way of thinking and believing. Brian Maidment Professor of English, University of Salford. â oeI am delighted to have the chance to comment on this book. I read the doctoral thesis on which it is based with great interest and enjoyment, and learnt enormously from it. As a historian of nineteenth-century Britain with a particular interest in the construction of identities (and as an Italophile) I found it highly rewarding. The topic is of intrinsic interest and considerable significance. The author identifies a key period in the emergence of the English idea(s) of â ~Italiannessâ (TM) and interrogates the topic through a variety of thoughtfully chosen case studies and via a rich array of appropriate primary sources. Most of the material was new to me and even topics that I felt some familiarity with, notably street music, were presented in a novel and rewarding way. I think the topic alone is worthy of a book-length study; matters Italian were at the heart of much political and cultural discussion in the mid-Victorian period and shaped both international political discourses and notions of British/English identity. However, what I think gives added value to this particular treatment is its approach. The work is inter-disciplinary in the best sense of the word. Dr McAllister is confident with the historical component (knowledge of context, strength and weakness of sources) but also with a number of approaches drawn from the field of cultural studies. Crucially, she manages to fuse the two so as to avoid the empirical overload that can blight the former and the linguistic opacity and wilfulness that can mark the later. The result is a subtle work that adds much to our knowledge but is also a model of how to write this type of study.â Professor David Russell, Department of History, University of Central Lancashire â oeThe book sets out to examine a range of representations of Italy, Italians and, more, of â ~Italiannessâ (TM) in mid-nineteenth-century England, with a view to exploring how ideas of Englishness were defined against Italian archetypes. Taking the mid-century years of the Risorgimento as her focus, Dr McAllister demonstrates, in a well-orchestrated and well-illustrated argument, the significance of a taxonomy of â ~Italiannessâ (TM) to Victorian self-understanding and self-fashioning. She is particularly interested in its meanings for middle-class English men, and its role in the construction of Victorian masculinity. The reach of this study is wide, taking in high and popular cultural texts, both literary and visual, including novels, poetry, painting, the periodical press and its illustrations, travel literature, and critical and historical writing in the context of the Risorgimento struggle for Italian unification and independence. Dr McAllisterâ (TM)s book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the high profile of Italy and the Italian in the mid-nineteenth-century English imagination and of the impact of such cross-cultural negotiations on the self-definition of the middle-class male.â Professor Hilary Fraser, Geoffrey Tillotson Chair in Nineteenth-Century Studies, School of English & Humanities, Birkbeck University of London
