A book read.
INTRODUCTION Silvana Patriarca
'typically Italian. " In February 2003, the most important Italian newspapers devoted pages and pages to the death of Alberto Sordi, the popular actor to star in dozens of films of the Italian Republic. Almost all commentators were agreed that in his films Sordi had represented better than any other character of the Italians. For the Catholic newspaper Avvenire, was "the mirror" of Italy. The Corriere della Sera hailed him as "the hero of all our faults," while La Repubblica had embodied the 'art to be Italian "personifying" a mixture of defects "unequivocally Italic. The 'Unity' Deaf was a "great little Italian 'and the' Century of Italy" was a national symbol which for fifty years had given a "face to the vices and virtues of the Italians." Beyond this general agreement (with the exception of members of the Northern League, who did not like the Roman world of the Deaf) no doubt there were differences of emphasis, in addition to the ideological positions that reflect the regional base of each paper, but the importance of Deaf as an expression of "national character" was approved almost unanimously.
The fact that an actor is assigned such a role is perhaps not surprising, considering the importance of cinema in contemporary culture. In Italy the phenomenon is even more pronounced because in the period after 1945 the cinema became a nationalized function in an environment where, apart from the extreme right, nationalism did not have much political marketability. The film then became the privileged vehicle for the production of images of Italian style both at home and abroad, and the Italian comedies of the fifties and sixties, which was often the protagonist Sordi, became "the first generally capable of putting continuity with the public at large the problem national identity. " Can elicit more surprise that the role of national icon has been assigned to an actor who played negative characters regularly, and who has built his entire career impersonating dell'antieroe different versions, the young provincial indolent able to adapt to the opportunity with success in different political regimes, the philandering that eventually, reluctantly, must submit to the order of holy matrimony, and so on. What are the reasons? With this book, I will try to answer this question and make sense of this apparent paradox reconstructing the genealogy and history of the discourse of national character, a rhetoric that is since the dawn of contemporary and which resists the passage of time.
But what is national character? Although the concept in academic rightly lost its legitimacy, this concept is still alive in popular culture, where, among other things, gives rise to an infinite number of jokes on ethnic grounds, and in journalism where it is the structure a number of reports on foreign countries. The national character is not the same thing as national identity, although in common parlance the two terms are often confused. Both concepts are quite elusive and lends itself to multiple definitions and uses, but we can say that the national character tends to refer to the provisions of "objective", established (a set of particular moral and mental traits) of a population, while national identity, a term coined more recently, tends to indicate a more subjective perception and self-images, which may involve a sense of mission and exhibition in the world. You will need to return to talk about the meanings of these terms is often disputed, but for now suffice it to say that, in practice, both concepts operate more or less that containers of different stakeholders tend to fill a variety of contents. These contents are not chosen at random: the discussions on national identity and character national and the definition of two concepts occur in the context of discursive models that often have a long history and which individual partners are most often unaware. The burden of this model of discourse is particularly evident in Italy in the last twenty years after the fall of the old party system that had structured the life of the republic in the aftermath of fascism, but the problems the nation is back to dominate the public discourse .
Since the early nineties of the last century, the Italian interest in the issue of national identity, initially stimulated by the increasing visibility of the Northern League on the political scene and its virulent attacks on the unity of the nation, has been significant and continues unabated. The titles in the library in recent years clearly show the anxiety and worries about the fragility of national and buoyancy to the dangers of its disintegration: If we cease to be a nation, Italy goodbye? Unity and disunity from 1860 to today, Finis Italiae, The Death of the homeland, Italy without Italians, to name a few. Other titles are symptomatic of anxiety for the issue of modernity, or the lack of modernity, the country and the quality of its civic culture: Italy is a civilized country?, Le Italie parallel. Why Italy can not become a modern, civil identity of the Italians. And in newspapers and magazines these issues are boosted by titles such as Italians, people in masks, all scary and processed, the Italians? Anarchist sheep that do not form a nation, Italy is undone, but there are Italians, never will become a normal country?; What is Italy?.
As these examples show, the case of Deaf eloquently in recent years many citizens have questioned persistently about the meaning of being Italian. Although you may not even have the certainty of being a "real" nation, but many are convinced they have a national character, and the fact that this character does not make a good impression. In contrast to the positive image that other people often have of themselves (think about how they see the Americans - optimistic, forward-looking, concerned for the common good - or the British - loyal, reserved, respectful of the law) the idea that Italians have of themselves is by no means flattering to be part of any social group, describe themselves as a nation of cynics, regardless of extreme individualism of the public good, opportunist prone to cronyism, false if not all liars. According to Eugenio Scalfari, for several years and current editorial director of the "Republic," these traits are so ingrained as to constitute almost one ethnicity. Often, foreign commentators agree with this idea and talk, with or without irony, "Italian-style political" and the risk that it may infect the public life of the best performing countries.
Indeed, such considerations seem to be justified by several recent events. In the early nineties, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the investigation "Clean Hands" corruption revealed a very large sector of the ruling class and the large number of politicians and businessmen were indicted. Following this the country witnessed the collapse of the whole party system that had ruled since the end of World War II. Immediately after the collapse of this system the hope of positive change were dashed when the country became the scene of devastating political rise of media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, who had acquired immense power in the field of commercial television, thanks to connections with important political figures in the party system that had just collapsed. Of course, long before these recent developments in Italy was known as a country where political corruption was widespread and the law was poorly observed and not sufficiently enforced. All these phenomena raise questions rather than legitimate not only the quality of institutions but also on the attitudes of the population. However, such attitudes equate to a "national character" is something quite different. This requires a more critical look, in fact, is the fact that many Italians read these realities through the lens of the concept of national character, especially when you consider that Italy, unfortunately, is not the only country that is facing with political corruption or conduct that, from a civil point of view, leave much to be desired. In other words, if no one can deny the existence of certain traits in Italian society and culture, it is not clear that they should be called a "national character" (or national identity in Italy, as I said, the two terms are often interchangeable). And so we return to our initial question: What is the national character? And why so many Italians are convinced they have a national character that is flawed, and that its failures also explain most of the current political and social problems of the country? The thesis of this book is that part of the answer can be found in the study of the history of the discourse of national character, that speech should be understood as a set of ideas, themes, arguments and tropes of applicants, in the Italian culture for a long time.
0 comments:
Post a Comment