City and Nation in the Italian Unification : The National Festivals of Dante Alighieri / Mahnaz Yousefzadeh.

City and Nation in the Italian Unification : The National Festivals of Dante Alighieri / Mahnaz Yousefzadeh.

First edition.

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, ©2011.

x, 253 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Italian and Italian American Studies

"This book narrates the first national celebration of united Italy, the Sixth Centenary of Dante Alighieri in May 1865. Denominated alternatively as a national, European, and secular festa, the affair materialized as an eclectic Italian monument with extraordinary political, social and cultural significance. The Centenary was a platform upon which an alternative definition of Italian identity emerged, one based on a Florentine cultural nationalism that opposed the Savoyard territorial nationalism. An stunningly popular event celebrated throughout Italian civil society, the festa was conceived, organized, and strategically promoted from a municipal center, the city of Florence. Its Florentine organizers successfully wrote the story of the Centenary as a parable of the Florentine son, Dante, who fathered the Italian nation as well as king Victor Emmanuel himself"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Italian and Italian American studies (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))

United States -- New York (State) -- New York.

PQ4362.A65 F69 2011