Nationalism and Localism are often paired in anthropology as opposite or dialectic categories. In this work my aim is to demonstrate through the example of Gorizia that the relationship between those theoretical constructions is more complex. In a borderland area, in fact, everybody seems to continuously "wear" and "dismiss" the clothes of Nationalism and Localism, so that rather than opposites, they are best seen as dialectical or even complementary categories.Gorizia is a city located on the border between Italy and Slovenia. The area was inhabited by Italians, Slovenians, and Friulans since the Roman Empire colonized the territory. These groups speak different languages but share a similar culture, because for many centuries they peacefully cohabitated under different dominations. Conflict exploded only at the end of the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom, when the rise of Nationalisms and the cruelty of Totalitarianisms led to the building of the modern borders and to the separation of the groups. This work consists in four chapters. After an introduction, dedicated to the analysis of Nationalism and Localism as anthropological categories, the first chapter introduces and maps the city. The second and third chapters focus on the history: the second chapter highlights the building up of a common identity through the Patriarchal and Austrian domination and the concept of Mitteleuropa, while the third investigates the local outcomes of the process that, through Irredentism, led to Italian Fascism and Slavic Socialism. The ethnic fragmentation that followed the creation of the borders is the subject of the fourth and last chapter, which examines contemporary Gorizia.In spring 2006 I carried out fieldwork in this city, collecting interviews and engaged in participant observation. The questions posed in the interviews and the observations made sought to determine the extent to which there is segregation or cooperation among groups, if there are differences between generations in political opinions and in the use of the public places, if personal relationships are somehow influenced by ethnic identity. The material collected was used ethnographically in the attempt to shed light on social divisions in the way the people of Gorizia view their city and themselves.
Sartori, Chiara,
"Strong Identities. Localism and Nationalism in Gorizia."
(2010).
Italian Studies Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z07S7M08
