On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the (re)foundation of the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Debrecen, we invited researchers from various disciplines to attend the international conference:
Old and new questions: the North-South dualism in modern and contemporary times
31 August / 1 September 2018
In the construction of the Italian national identity the dualism between North and South has played a very important role, still today it structures most of the political and media discourses on the state of the country. This opposition is well rooted in European currents of thought that in the modern era have helped to outline the profound otherness of the southern European and have partly fuelled the Italian Risorgimento.
More recent events have placed Italy in the opposite poles of the North-South dichotomy. The economic and institutional crisis between 2008 and 2011 saw the Bel Paese once again represented as the South of Europe, among the less "virtuous" and "backward" nations. At the same time, migrations have brought the Mediterranean to the center of the stage of the continental public debate, where Italy assumes a border role, northern or southern depending on the point of view. Furthermore, the implications of the last political elections make the theme even more interesting and current.
The conference therefore intends to reflect on the theme of North-South dualism as a construction of meaning that structures Italian national identity, but also on works, theories and methods that challenge and overcome this approach.
The conference's approach is multidisciplinary and will involve scholars of literature, linguistics, history, geography, musicology, and politology from Belgium, Holland, France, United Kingdom, Australia and Italy.
The two plenary sessions will be held by Prof. Carmine Pinto, associate professor of contemporary history at the University of Salerno and Dr. Silvia Aru, Marie Curie fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Researc of the University of Amsterdam.