When History Teaching Turns into Parrhesia: The Case of Italian Colonial Crimes

The aim of this chapter was to highlight the importance and the con- sequentiality of a specific kind of history education that happens when teachers decide to openly narrate to their students the crimes commit- ted by previous generations of their own group—crimes so far kept silenced and literally denied in the general social discourse. By applying to this teaching the discussion of Foucault (1983) on truth and social discourse, we propose to single it out from other kinds of teaching designed for learning about controversial issues (Leone 2012; Leone and Sarrica 2014). We think, in fact, that this kind of history education has to be distinguished from other kinds of difficult teaching on sensitive issues.specificities of this kind of history edu- cation will be discussed. More in particular, theoretical expectancies on effects of this strategy of history education will be related to the discussion of Foucault on empowering consequences of parrhesia. In spite of the risk of aggressive or defensive reactions of listeners, parrhesia speaks, in fact, without fear a relevant yet inconvenient truth that, if eventually understood and accepted, may give to its receivers a better grasp on some important reasons accounting for the current features of their own lives.