City and the Nation in the Italian Unification
Subtitle: The National Festivals of Dante Allighieri
By: Mahnaz Yousefzadeh
Series: Italian and Italian American Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780230108646
Copyright date: 2011
Subjects: LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Italian; Group identity; LITERARY CRITICISM / Books & Reading; Anniversaries; Italian National characteristics; LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry; History
Description: "This book narrates the first national celebration of united Italy, the Sixth Centenary of Dante Alighieri in May 1865. Denominated alternatively as a national, European, and secular festa, the affair materialized as an eclectic Italian monument with extraordinary political, social and cultural significance. The Centenary was a platform upon which an alternative definition of Italian identity emerged, one based on a Florentine cultural nationalism that opposed the Savoyard territorial nationalism. An stunningly popular event celebrated throughout Italian civil society, the festa was conceived, organized, and strategically promoted from a municipal center, the city of Florence. Its Florentine organizers successfully wrote the story of the Centenary as a parable of the Florentine son, Dante, who fathered the Italian nation as well as king Victor Emmanuel himself"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.