Shaping Hellenic National Identity between 18th and 19th centuries: how European intellectuals steered Greek and European History

ongoing

What role did textual exchanges (epistles, journal essays and newspaper articles) between Italian philhellenes and (Italian)-Greek intellectuals refugeed in Italy (due to long-term cultural/political bonds) and Switzerland (as host country for many Greek exiles) play in setting ground for the 1821 Greek Revolution? How did the reflections of these intellectuals on the idea of Greekness, on contemporary historical events and on the illuministic ideas contributed to the process of national identity negotiation underlying the Revolution? Answering these questions is crucial to fully understand the role of the Greek Revolution in shaping modern Europe. HeNaId will offer the first in-depth study of these textual exchanges, focusing on texts by major (Italian-)Greek intellectuals with a focus on the poet Ugo Foscolo as a leading figure among those. While the ideological roots of Greek Revolution are generally studied from historical-philosophical or iconographic perspectives, HeNaId will fill a gap in scholarship by adopting an interdisciplinary approach combining archival and bibliographical research with a philological-literary investigation to 1) map out the political and cultural networks of (Italian)-Greek intellectuals between 18C and 19C across Greece, Italy and Switzerland; 2) study the texts exchanged within these networks to understand their degree of influence; 3) highlight the so-far neglected role played by Foscolo in promoting and orientating these cultural networks. Employed methodologies will be greatly improved through an outgoing phase at the leading Foscolo study group of the University of Fribourg, a secondment at the Laboratory in Italian History and Historiography at the Kapodistrian University of Athens and thanks to the main host University of Bergamo’s commitment to textual criticism. Working at these institutions will deepen my skills in Italian/Neo-Hellenic studies, thus accelerating my career goal of obtaining a tenure at an EU University.