Raccontare la Nazione: la letteratura sull’unificazione politica dell’Italia nel XIX secolo
Narrating the Nation: Literature on the Political Unification of Italy in the 19th Century

Summary/Abstract: This article contains the proposal of a theoretical apparatus and criteria which might be adopted to approach the topic of Italian Literature about the "Risorgimento". The ‘social value’ of literary works was taken as a basis, that is, their ability to explain the historical process to contemporary readers by depicting large-scale events while narrating the personal stories of fictional characters. A basic research hypothesis here presented is that 1861 constitutes a turning point in Italian Literature, as the optimistic hopes of pre‑Unity patriotic-oriented authors turn into disillusion in the wake of the lack of sound achievements by the new Kingdom in the fields of the social and cultural advancement which should have followed political unification, but it did not.

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