Alice Balestrino

My dissertation project is a comparative analysis of Margherita Sarfatti’s and Gertrude Stein’s works as two art patrons and collectors, female hosts of intellectual salons, and, crucially, Jewish authors who collaborated, respectively, with the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini in the period in-between the two World Wars, and the Vichy regime of Marshal Pétain during WWII. The selection of these authors and the choice of this timeframe take into consideration the historical, political, and social crisis at the heart of Europe: the antisemitic legislation introduced in Germany in 1933 and its subsequent promulgations in Fascist Italy (in 1938) and in Nazi-occupied territories (including France).