Dissertation committee:
Κωνσταντίνος Ράπτης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Νεότερης Ευρωπαϊκής Ιστορίας, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Γεράσιμος Παγκράτης, Καθηγητής Ιταλικής Ιστορίας και Πολιτισμού, Τμήμα Ιταλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Δημήτριος Παυλόπουλος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Ιστορίας της Τέχνης, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Μαρία Παπαθανασίου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια Νεότερης Ευρωπαϊκής Ιστορίας, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Αικατερίνη Κωνσταντινίδου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Ιστορίας Νέου Ελληνισμού, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Ιωάννης Τσόλκας, Καθηγητής Ιστορίας Ιταλικής Λογοτεχνίας και Ευρωπαϊκού Πολιτισμού, Τμήμα Ιταλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας), Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Παναγιώτης Ιωάννου, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Ιστορίας της Τέχνης, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης.
Summary:
SUMMARY OF THE DOCTORAL THESIS SUBMITTED BY STELLA RENTOUMI:
“Nationalism and Art in the Risorgimento Italy through the essays of Giuseppe Mazzini and the artistic production of that era”.
The subject study of this doctoral thesis are the essays on art and literature written by the preacher of Italian nationalism, Giuseppe Mazzini, between 1826-1841, as well as the interaction between nationalism and art (and literature) in the Risorgimento Italy, as expressed through these texts, but also through the works of Italian artists and writers of that period of time.
The years of Risorgimento (1815-1870) were important not only because they led to the independence and unification of Italy, but also because they were the years when a common national tradition was invented and reconstructed, and the images, which would represent the Italian nation, were gathered. The division of the Italian peninsula among various occupying forces and the absence of a stable pre-existing state or even a royal house turned culture into a powerful weapon in making the new nation. As a result, literature, historiography and the arts played a crucial role in the shaping of the cultural and especially the collective national memory of the Italians.
Mazzini was one of the most emblematic Risorgimento figures. However, in this doctoral thesis, we approach Mazzini not through his essays on politics, but through the less known essays he wrote and published, concerning the arts of painting, music and literature, since Mazzini considered literature a form of art, especially poetry, which he thought to be superior to all kinds of art. In these essays, Mazzini criticizes and expresses revolutionary ideas on art and its mission, aiming – at the same time- at communicating his political and aesthetic views and guiding the Italian writers and artists as to which strategies of representation they should adopt in order to construct the new cultural identity of the Italian nation.
The aim of this thesis is to analyze and present the aforementioned Mazzini’s essays along with the works and their creators that he presents, through a cultural approach to the Risorgimento, in the framework of exploring the role of the intersection between political history and cultural artifact, around the central question of national identity. This thesis is composed of four chapters: the first chapter is on Mazzini’s essays Di una letteratura europea (1829) και Italian Literature since 1830 (1837) as well as on smaller Mazzini’s articles about literature and the second chapter focuses on Mazzini’s essays Poesie-Arte (1837) and De l’Art en Italie, à propos de Marco Visconti, roman de Thomas Grossi (1835), concerning both art and literature. The subject of the third chapter is music and Mazzini’s essay Filosofia della Musica (1835) and the last article focuses on the art of painting and Mazzini’s article Modern Italian Painters (1841).
The novelty of this thesis lies in the fact that I have attempted the analytical and comparative presentation of Mazzini’s most important essays/articles on the arts of music, painting and literature in Italy, in addition to the collection and analytical presentation of the works that Mazzini mentions in his essays. At the same time, through Mazzini’s texts, which trace the historical trajectory of Italian literature, music and painting from the beginning of 19th century to 1841, and the presentation and analysis of the creators and their works, valuable material and information emerge concerning the Risorgimento protagonists- in the field of culture- their role, the impact of their work, as well as the network of journalists, patrons, Italian exiles and their foreign supporters around them,
In this thesis, the collection and analysis of Mazzini’s most important essays on what he characterized as art (literature, music, painting), afforded the chance of my analysing them comparatively. As I highlighted, their common characteristics were the analysis of the present and a prophecy of the future as well as the promotion and repetition of Mazzini’s aesthetic and political views -more clearly and combatively, over time- aiming at educating, proselytizing and above all, leading Italians to action. In Mazzini’s patriotic propaganda, the instrumentalization of art and literature and their utilization in order to promote nationalistic goals, are obvious in all his texts, gradually escalating until 1841, in his article Modern Italian Painters, in accordance with the development and escalation of the fight of the Risorgimento, in my opinion. Last but not least, in this thesis, I also focused on and highlighted the interconnection between painting, music and literature, during that founding era of Italian national unity.
In conclusion, it is important to emphasize that in this thesis, through the presentation, analysis and deepening of Mazzini’s essays/ articles, emerged these important historic documents, which despite their repetitions, verbosity and Mazzini’s “prescriptions” were characterized by lucidity, deep knowledge of the artistic life of the times and awareness of their aim, and they were innovative as they proposed a new form of interaction between arts and politics, promoting at the same time, the eminence of the cultural elites and their ability to intervene in the politicians’ Realpolitikal objectives concerning the construction of the new nation, as the political leaders and institutions were not the only protagonists of the Italian nation-building.
