What makes an Italian? Formation of national and cultural identity in Italy
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Kulcsszavak: | identitás kultúra nemzet nemzeti identitás Olaszország |
| Online Access: | http://dolgozattar.uni-bge.hu/45127 |
| Abstract: | I chose my topic for personal reasons because I was fascinated by the country's history, culture, national traditions, and mentality during my stays in Italy. I will try to provide a comprehensive picture of the different aspects of Italian national identity and, finally, the parallels between the construction of Italian and European identities. Besides, the goal of my thesis is to present the Italian cultural identity, as well as its behavioural and business culture. Many books written in both Italian and English show that the political intelligentsia and the Italian people have a lot of disagreements and tensions about what it means to be Italian. With the ever-increasing threats to national identity in today's turbulent world, it is a topic that is becoming increasingly relevant. This is especially true in a country where national identity has always been on the edge of the abyss. Moreover, the topic is of high importance as Italy celebrated it is 161 st birthday this March. My thesis is based on the following logic: I begin with an introduction to the history of Italian identity disintegration, focus on the geopolitical situation in Italy, and then on the North-South conflict and finally on Italian unification. In the following, I will give a comprehensive overview of the national Italian identity. Within this, I will focus specifically on the religion, national stereotypes, and language of my chosen country, as well as on the importance of the elements of cultural behaviour and cultural features. After this, I will write about business culture and Hungarian and Italian cultures. Finally, I will look into what it means to be Italian today and why identity and cultural knowledge are important. As part of my research, I want to first organize the secondary sources, then do primary research, which I have already done by making a questionnaire. In conclusion, my thesis aims to prove the hypothesis that, despite the contestability or absence of the most essential elements of identity, we can speak of an Italian identity whose essence lies precisely in its diversity, in its non-existent unity. The Italian national identity is unconventional. The process of identity construction follows similar steps at the sub-national, national, and supranational levels, but to be effective in the long term, it needs a foundation to be built a upon. |
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