National identity of a country is a sense of a nation that is represented by history, music, ethnicity, religion, and language. “Others” in a nation help shape and form the country’s national identity. In the article,”National Identity and ‘the other,’” Anna Triandafyllidou states, “national identity is defined not only from within, namely from the features that fellow-nationals share in common but also from without, that is, through distinguishing and differentiating the nation from other nations or ethnic groups” (593). The idea of identifying a population as one, a nation, can be defined not only within a country’s borders, but through differentiating from other nations. This process of examination helps strengthen one nation’s idea of their national identity. In Triandafyllidou’s article it is stated that, “Most Nations existing today had to fight to secure their survival and to achieve their independence” (594). National identity stems from the nation’s beginnings and the various obstacles they overcame to reach their current status including full development from history, music, religion and language.
Defining Italy’s national identity starts with politics. According to Antonio Negri in the article Italy, Exile Country, “Italy, after all, is the country that invented the liberty of the moderns. Instead of enjoying that liberty, however, it has been enslaved. Italy is the country that invented capitalism” (43 Negri). Italy is currently a democratic nation, but it was previously a Monarchy. Italy was under other nations rule for many different periods of their upbringing as a country, thus causing it to be nearly impossible to form a national identity. Italy and their national identity began to form as an independent nation in 1859, when the second war for independence was fought against Austria. Finally, Italy was a nation after the risorgimento in 1861 and this marked the beginning of their national identity development.
In the years before Italy’s independence, the country went through many different transitions of power. Italy originated from Rome in 753 B.C. and was ruled for many years by Julius Caesar. This time was followed by the Napoleonic era 1789-1848. Italy started to identify with the French, because their whole nation was under French control. As stated in History of Italy, “During the Napoleonic era, evidence of Italian nationalism began to appear in several guises, in some cases inspired by the ideals of French nationalism, in others reacting against Napoleon’s heavy-handed government” (98 Killinger). This goes to show how Italy’s identity was based on “the others” -- the French. Italy’s national identity changed over the many different periods of rule, and this aspect is a large part of their identity today.
This constant change did not end with Napoleon, but was eminent in the years to come, during World War I and II. In 1925, after World War I, Mussolini declared himself president over Italy. During this time, Mussolini created a treaty with Hitler to be allies for World War II causing Italy to be the first of the axis powers to be invaded. The fascist party overthrew Mussolini and he was later executed in 1945. After the wars ceased Italy began to develop their current national identity, as a democratic republic. In 1949 they joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and later the United Nations. Thus giving them a new solid base to define themselves as Italians. Differentiating and identifying themselves as Italians was difficult in these continuous times of political change, since they were constantly defining and redefining themselves based on the “others.” Not only is the Italian identity based on the “the other,” but also off of their religion, music and language.
Religion is a big part of Italy’s national identity. Italy is predominantly a Roman Catholic nation. According to the Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion, Robert Wuthnow states, “The construction of Catholicism’s modern identity began in the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution” (Wuthnow). Religion is intertwined in much of Italy’s culture and national identity.
Italy started defining themselves as a nation by initiating civil rights movements throughout the 19th century: legalization of divorce, the establishment of gender equality and the legalization of abortion. Italy recently began debating the idea of legalizing same sex marriage. In the article Italy Debates Gay Civil Partnerships, Gabriele Pileri states, “Italy's parliament has begun debating a proposal to give gay civil partnerships legal status, a bill that faces fierce resistance from the Roman Catholic Church” (Pileri). Roman Catholic traditions are a key component of Italian national identity. Thus the “other,” in this situation is further threatening to, yet again, change the Italian Identity. This is illustrated when Gabriele states, “Last week, Pope Francis appeared to weigh into the debate, defending traditional marriage as "the family God wants’” (Pileri). This Catholic piece of the Italian identity is very important and one that many Italians are unwilling to give up. Italy’s national identity not only involves religion, but music as well.
Music is part of Italian identity because it helps distinguish a nation among other nations and helps identify different social groups within one nation. Italy is mainly known for their Opera. Opera is a core part of Italian culture. In the journal Opera and Absolutism in Restoration Italy, John A. Davis says, “Opera’s popularity had powerful aesthetic reasons as well; Italian Romanticism found its most resonant voice in the music and themes of the opera lirica. In fact, opera provided the only opportunity for new sensibilities in painting, literature, and music to be expressed all together” (572 Davis). This genre of music not only is unique, but it bleeds through all artistic facets giving Italy a romantically artistic national identity.
This romanticism is not only seen through their music, but in their national language, Italian. In the book Language and Society in a Changing Italy, Arturo Tosi states, “Italian was imposed as the only language to be used in offices as well as in the press (Klein 1986)... it was hoped that minority languages would eventually disappear and minority populations would be rapidly italicised” (7 Tosi). This not only speaks to the importance of the Italian language as the prominent language in Italy, but also to their disapproval of anything different than this romantic language. They seem to be successful in doing this. Tosi explains,
The modernization of Italian society drew the dialects closer to the national language expanding the repertoire of their speaker, and also moved boundaries between Italian and the minority languages. (31 Tosi)
Thus Italian was defined as the national language, not only in the past, but in modern society as well. Italy’s national identity was clearly differentiated from “the other.”
Without Italy’s history, religious, musical, and language background they would not be the country they are today. As stated by Viscusi, “To call oneself an Italian meant, and still means, to have loyalties divided against themselves. ‘Mille Italie, una patria’ [A thousand Italies, one fatherland]” (50). Although, Italy was divided throughout the span of history and had different “others” forming it, Italians still found a national identity.
Works Cited
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