Bisogno d'Italia

Italian Editorial

Abstract

The current issue of Spaziofilosofico (May 2011) has Italy for its theme. It is our way of saying “Happy Birthday, Italy!” on her 150^th anniversary. We have tried to offer a phenomenology of Italy, to catch the essence (if there is one) of Italy in a scene, a fragment, a situation, an image, a landscape, a book, a concept… We have been on a quest for the phenomenon, for the very idea, of Italy. What is the genome “Italy,” if there is one? How did it evolve historically? Where is it headed? Or perhaps it has never evolved, and it has always been the same? What is revealed in the political current situation of the phenomenon Italy? And can one speak of “phenomenon,” if not of “essence,” for something that, like a nation-state, is part of a continuous historical evolving? Italians have often been in a condition of diaspora, which did not prevent them from having Italianness as a desire. Italianness is loved from afar, with a thought that goes (think of Verdi's Va' pensiero). This diffraction is perhaps not accidental but rather essential.