GRICE E CAPOGRASSI: IL MITO POLITICO DELL'ITALIA secondo Antonino de Francesco

 The Antiquity of the Italian NationThe Cultural Origins of a Political Myth in Modern Italy, 1796-1943 Antonino De Francesco Print publication date: 2014 ISBN: 9780199662319 Publisher: Oxford University Press Google Preview Abstract At the beginning of the 19th century, with Italy under Napoleon, the antiquarian topic of anti-Romanism was turned against the dominant French culture and became a pillar of the nation-building process. The antiquity of the Italian nation—prior to the Roman dominion—was evoked in order to support an inveterate Italian cultural primacy and proved very useful for creating Italian nationalism. However, this topic is completely forgotten today because, at the end of the 19th century, Italian studies of Roman history, following the example of Mommsen, would drape a long veil over the period of earliest Italy, while, subsequently, Fascism openly claimed the legacy of the Roman Empire. Italic antiquity would, however, remain alive throughout those years and it often returned as a theme, intersecting deeply with the political and cultural life of modern Italy. This book examines the constantly reasserted antiquity of the Italian nation and its different uses in history, archaeology, palaeoethnology, and anthropology, from the Napoleonic period to the collapse of Fascism. Examining the fortunes and misfortunes of this subject, it challenges the view of 19th-century Italian nationalism as an ethnical movement, suggesting how deeply the image of pre-Roman Italy forged the political and cultural sensibility of modern Italy. Page of  IntroductionIntroduction Chapter: (p.1) Introduction Source: The Antiquity of the Italian Nation Author(s): Antonino De Francesco Publisher: Oxford University Press DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662319.003.0001 The resumption of studies on Italian nationalism focuses upon the aggressive forms that Fascism would later come to represent. The introduction discusses the easy notions of ethnic or racial nationalism, questioning these categories and suggesting how complex Italian nationalism really was. Regarding this, the theme of the antiquity of the Italian nation—that is, the myth of a perpetual presence in the country substantiating a cultural primacy—represents an important example. An examination of the earliest Italy, as it was proposed in 19th-century Italian culture, suggests how it did not have a racial or ethnic basis, its main feature being cultural. This peculiar aspect of early Italian nationalism is outlined in its historical perspective, and the structure of the book is described, indicating how the topic will be followed from its birth during the Napoleonic years to its final demise shortly after the fall of Fascism.  Keywords:   Italian nationalism, Fascism, earliest Italy  Sign In   Page of  The historic past of the nationThe historic past of the nation Chapter: (p.29) The historic past of the nation Source: The Antiquity of the Italian Nation Author(s): Antonino De Francesco Publisher: Oxford University Press DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662319.003.0002 This chapter is devoted to the first explicitly nationalizing reading of the myth of antiquity developed in 1806 by Vincenzo Cuoco, who, in his novel Platone in Italia, recalled the existence at the dawn of humanity of a civilizing people, the Etruscans. In this way, Cuoco, aiming to establish antecedents for the new Italian nation as it measured itself against the French cultural model, could propose the ethnic-cultural unity of the peninsula’s inhabitants since ancient times. At the end of the 19th century, Italian nationalists rediscovered Cuoco’s thesis and saw it as the basis of modern Italian political identity. However, the chapter underlines how this can be regarded as a predatory operation, which overvalued the actual significance of Cuoco’s novel in the cultural context of Italy. It also shows how Cuoco’s novel remained known mainly for emphasizing the cultural primacy of the Italians rather than its assertion of their ethnic uniformity.  Keywords:   Vincenzo Cuoco, Platone in Italia, Etruscans, Italian nationalists  Page of  A plural ItalyA plural Italy Chapter: (p.51) A plural Italy Source: The Antiquity of the Italian Nation Author(s): Antonino De Francesco Publisher: Oxford University Press DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662319.003.0003 This chapter underlines how Vincenzo Cuoco’s interpretation of Italian antiquity did not hold up against Giuseppe Micali’s Italy before the dominion of Rome. Published in 1810, this work responded to Cuoco’s view, suggesting that cultural unity should not lead one to believe that the country’s peoples necessarily shared common origins. The chapter shows how it was Micali’s opus rather than Cuoco’s that came to dominate the patriotic culture of the Italians. The significant impact that the work had is shown by the fact that, in the first half of the 19th century, Micali’s book became a subject of great interest throughout the country, accompanying the national movement (the so-called Risorgimento) on its progress towards the events of the 1848 revolution.  Keywords:   Giuseppe Micali, Italy before the dominion of Rome, Vincenzo Cuoco, Risorgimento, 1848 revolution  Sign In    Page of  Unity in diversityUnity in diversity Chapter: (p.84) (p.85) Unity in diversity Source: The Antiquity of the Italian Nation Author(s): Antonino De Francesco Publisher: Oxford University Press DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662319.003.0004 This chapter attempts to measure the real impact of Giuseppe Micali on the political culture of the Risorgimento, testing the importance of his work Storia degli antichi popoli italiani on the studies of the Italic past published in several areas around the peninsula, especially in Lombardy (which remained the main Italian publishing centre), Naples, and Sicily. The analysis shows the multiple and different nationalizing uses of Micali’s works in tthese regions and confirms how his reading of a cultural, rather than ethnic, uniformity of the Italian people, was overwhelmingly accepted by the patriots on the eve of 1848. Micali’s model appeared, in fact, the only one that could be followed in a country which, though culturally united for centuries, was at the same time deprived of any political cohesion.  Keywords:   Giuseppe Micali, Storia degli antichi popoli italiani, Risorgimento, Naples, Sicily, Lombardy  Sign In Page of  The other ItalyThe other Italy Chapter: (p.113) The other Italy Source: The Antiquity of the Italian Nation Author(s): Antonino De Francesco Publisher: Oxford University Press DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662319.003.0005 This chapter suggests that Giuseppe Micali’s model came under fire when, after the political unification of the Italian peninsula, it became clear that the encounter between the various parts of Italy was not a particularly harmonious one and that the problematic area of southern Italy seemed to obstruct, rather than smooth, the way towards a rapid process of stabilization for the newly unified state. The chapter also casts light on how the southern regions’ difficulty in becoming an integral part of the new unified Italy would determine the reflections on the roots of a diversity which, at the end of the 19th century, would come home to roost in the considerations concerning the Aryan and Mediterranean races which had populated ancient Italy.  Keywords:   unified Italy, southern Italy, Giuseppe Micali, Aryan race, Mediterranean race  Sign In   Page of  The anthropology of the nationThe anthropology of the nation Chapter: (p.133) The anthropology of the nation Source: The Antiquity of the Italian Nation Author(s): Antonino De Francesco Publisher: Oxford University Press DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662319.003.0006 Those who insist on the racist nature of the unified state improperly rely on Giuseppe Sergi’s anthropology as demonstrating firm evidence of his racist tendencies and establishing a connection between liberal Italy and Fascism. This chapter reconstructs Sergi’s career in order to re-situate him in his specific political and cultural context. From this point of view, his theme of racial differences within the nation suggested the existence of two different peoples on the peninsula: one northern and Aryan, the other southern and Mediterranean. This distinction remained popular and rapidly became a political matter, pertaining to the left of the political spectrum rather than the right. It was used to explain the reasons why the modernization of Italy seemed to be grinding to a halt, as well as to help sustain the political struggle that the radical left launched, at the end of the 19th century, against liberal Italy.  Keywords:   Giuseppe Sergi, anthropology, racist tendencies, liberal Italy, fascism  Return to RomeReturn to Rome Chapter: (p.158) (p.159) Return to Rome Source: The Antiquity of the Italian Nation Author(s): Antonino De Francesco Publisher: Oxford University Press DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662319.003.0007 At the end of the 19th century, the Italian state seemed to be heading for an irreversible crisis. Faced with this challenge, many academics were quick to reaffirm the value of the unified state and rejected every reading of Italian identity which did not sustain the idea of complete uniformity. This area is covered in this chapter, which deals with the renewal of the study of Roman history through the example of the work of Ettore Pais. A keen admirer of Micali, he soon adopted the model suggested by Mommsen, which saw in Roman expansionism a work of political and cultural unification of the whole of Italy. Pais’s main concern, therefore, was the construction of the nation’s common historical identity. That is why he aligned himself with all the political choices of the nationalist movement, from colonialism to the interventionism of the First World War and the acceptance of Fascism.  Keywords:   Ettore Pais, nationalist movement, colonialism, Fascism   The Italian Fascist Empire, racial policy and EtruscologyThe Italian Fascist Empire, racial policy and Etruscology Chapter: (p.181) The Italian Fascist Empire, racial policy and Etruscology Source: The Antiquity of the Italian Nation Author(s): Antonino De Francesco Publisher: Oxford University Press DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662319.003.0008 This last chapter shows how Romanism did not eradicate the tradition of Italian plurality, founded on the specific contributions of peoples of different origins. The theme of Italic antiquity was useful during Fascism, because, following the war in Ethiopia and the foundation of the Italian Empire, it was used to reject the mixing of races in the name of a civilizing policy with regard to populations held to be inferior. This theme helped to bring about a significant return of academic interest in relation to the origins of the ancient civilization. Basing his ideas on the example of the ancient Romans in Africa, Massimo Pallottino was able to reread Etruscan origins as the result of the meeting of different peoples through a cultural model that became common property. In this way, the process turned full circle and the work of Giuseppi Micali made a powerful comeback.  Keywords:   Romanism, Massimo Pallottino, Italic antiquity, Etruscan origins, Italian Empire, Giuseppe Micali