The scientific discourse circulated during a national-populist commemoration: Dannunzian Fiume and the ‘Italo-cosmopolitan’ field of history

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In today’s Europe, commemorations can be times at which to affirm international reconciliation, based notably on the knowledge produced by historians who are becoming progressively cosmopolitan. However, commemorations are also used by national-populist political parties for electoral purposes and can lead to tensions with neighbouring states. This was the case in Trieste in September 2019, when the city council executive (controlled by a right-wing national-populist coalition) decided to erect a statue of Gabriele D’Annunzio, 100 years after he had occupied the nearby city of Fiume (now Rijeka) in Croatia. This commemoration led to a series of debates among historians, especially in Italy. Based on a critical discourse analysis and an interdiscursive approach to narratives produced by historians for colleagues and for the broader society, the current research investigates the use of cosmopolitanism in the field of history when in parallel a commemoration is coordinated by national-populist forces in a public space.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)35-50
Number of pages16
JournalModern Italy
Volume28
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (INTER/SNF/18/ 12618900/CROSS-POP). I would like to thank Annarita Gori (University of Lisbon), Fabio Todero (Irsml FVG), Federico Carlo Simonelli (University of Urbino), Giordano Bruno Guerri (Il Vittoriale degli Italiani), Giovanni Lettini (Studio Contemplazioni), Luca Giuseppe Manenti (University of Trieste) and Raoul Pupo (University of Trieste) for kindly supplying documents used as resources for this research.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (INTER/SNF/18/12618900/CROSS-POP). I would like to thank Annarita Gori (University of Lisbon), Fabio Todero (Irsml FVG), Federico Carlo Simonelli (University of Urbino), Giordano Bruno Guerri (Il Vittoriale degli Italiani), Giovanni Lettini (Studio Contemplazioni), Luca Giuseppe Manenti (University of Trieste) and Raoul Pupo (University of Trieste) for kindly supplying documents used as resources for this research.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy.

Keywords

  • Field theory
  • History
  • cosmopolitism
  • Right-wing populism
  • Critical discourse analysis
  • Interdiscursivity

Cite this