Abstract

This work is an Anthropological study of local elaborations of Italian national identity based on fieldwork primarily undertaken in Milan, Italy from May through August 1997. In this work I examine ways in which a localized network of individuals variously construct a sense of intimacy within the collective identity of an Italian national community and the ways in which national identity intersects with affiliation with other collective identities. These are considered in relation to the contradictions within Italian society that belie the nation-state model, which proposes a congruity between a uniform population and the institutions of governance. These contradictions include the proposed oppositional dichotomy between the people and the state, of a northern and southern Italy, of various regional distinctions as well as the separatist politics of the Lega Nord. Further the local elaborations of Italian identity are considered in relation to 'non-Italian' engagements, such as with the European Community, American cultural presence and immigration from around the world into Italy. The contingent and inconsistent ways in which individuals situate themselves within a variety of collective identities is compared to the contradictory ways in which the same individuals represent identities as coherent categories. Ultimately it is proposed that an individual sense of a national identity is no more necessarily uniform than that of the nation itself.