Research Seminar organizzato dalla Prof.ssa Adriana Di Stefano -
Il Prof. Steve Hughes della Loyola University in Maryland - Baltimore parlerà di
"Duello d'onore versus delitto d'onore in the 19th century: diverse questions and various answers"
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21 maggio 2015 - ore 10.00
Aula Magna Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza - Università di Catania
Aula Magna Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza - Università di Catania
Abstract: Following unification, the ruling elites of Italy punctiliously and aggressively defended their honor through the ritual of dueling. They also strenuously rejected any notion that lower class risse - often carried out with knives - should be granted any parallel sense of honor or any corresponding mitigation of penalties that might arise from the conflicts. Yet the same elites provided legal mitigations for certain crimes of honor, including murder of one's cheating spouse, that would seem to apply to all classes of society. In this case gender would seem to trump class. Current research would indicate a continuity of mentality and legislation regarding this most personal and familial of crimes, with antecedents reaching deep into antiquity. However, the case is not so simple. For all its supposed force within Italian society, the delitto d'onore was not an uncontested category, and this study seeks to draw out some of the discussions both before and after unity that suggest its power may have had as much to do with new social and political arrangements as with past "prejudices".
Bio: Dr. Steven C. Hughes is professor of history and department chair at Loyola University in Maryland (Baltimore). He is the author of Crime, Disorder, and the Risorgimento: the Politics of Policing in Bologna (Cambridge, 1994) and Politics of the Sword: Dueling, Honor, and Masculinity in Modern Italy (Ohio State, 2007), as well as a variety of articles and papers, including some on Italian/Swiss nationalism. He is currently in Italy as a Fulbright Senior Scholar and a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, where he recently delivered a talk entitled "Virility, Blood, and Honor: Italy's Belated Entry into WWI in 1915."
More information on the latter at http://www.aarome.org/events/calendar/2015-5?mini=2015-5#item-12622
