FEAR AND FANTASTIC IMAGERY AS A POLITICAL DEVICE IN THE ITALIAN MEMORY OF THE ISTRIAN EXODUS
This research deals with the memory of the Istrian exodus in the framework of culture of fear as a characteristic of the modern age, and with regard to the 1990s change in the ideological context of the memory of World War II. The relation between exodus and fear is examined in the selected Italian historiographical, anthropological and psychoanalytical literature, in oral testimonies, as well as in the literary and cinematographic treatment in which Istrian oral tradition, legends and folklore are seen as the natural background of both exodus and fear. In this analysis, the use of fantastic elements and references to oral tradition are connected to anti-Slavic racism on the eastern Italian border as the fear of the unknown and demonized Other. Special attention is given to the motif of the dead animal thrown into the pit along with the victims as an element of the mythical conception of ritual killing. The narrative treatment of the memory of exodus, which is marked by fear, and its aspects persisting in contemporary Italian political discourse are examined, and the question is posed about the possible ways to stop this mythological machine.
