Abstract
Federico Chabod’s empathy with and fascination for German culture since the 1920s
defined his personality as an outstanding historian. His commitment to German classical
historicism, in particular, is part of a complex process of interactions between Italy and
Germany on many different levels. This article examines significant aspects of the mutual
understanding and misunderstanding between Italy and Germany in the 18th, 19th, and
20th centuries. The author suggests that the “theory of historical reception” promotes the
analysis of how historical identities emerge. The formation of national states and the
experiments with totalitarian regimes in both countries are discussed in this article. The
ambiguities inherent in the relations between Italy and Germany became visible in the lives
of the Italian Primo Levi and Giuseppe Renzetti. This essay ends with remarks on the
shifts in the relations between Italy and Germany after the reunification in 1990 and on the
volatile meaning of national identities in the age of globalization.
Titolo tradotto del contributo | [Machine translation] Italy-Germany: elective affinity or dangerous relationship? |
---|---|
Lingua originale | Italian |
pagine (da-a) | 123-144 |
Numero di pagine | 22 |
Rivista | SOCIETÀ E STORIA |
Volume | 167 |
Numero di pubblicazione | 1 |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2020 |
Keywords
- Federico Chabod.
- German history
- Italian history
- national identity
- reception theory