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From <em>Mare Nostrum</em> to <em>Mare Aliorum</em>: Mediterranean Theory and Mediterraneism in Contemporary Italian Thought

2010; eScholarship Publishing, University of California; Volume: 1; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5070/c311008856

2155-7926

Claudio Fogu,

Italian Fascism and Post-war Society

Mi sono sentito come una barca sbattuta da tante parole."Mario (Massimo Troisi) in Il postinoIn this unforgettable scene from Il postino, the Mediterranean Sea is figured as the progenitor of metaphor, poetry and the world.Mario feels like a "boat rocked by the words" of Pablo Neruda's poem, but the liquidity of those metaphors invades his very being, leading him to venture the question: "Then the world, and everything in it, is a metaphor for something else?" Neruda's startled face prompts Mario to fear that he may have gone too far, and he adds: "ho detto una stronzata?"(was that bullshit?).The poetic economy of the film requires Pablo's infinite humanitas to pay its respects to the humble Mediterranean genius of poetry, but Il postino never provides a real answer to that question.The same issue returns to haunt the discourse about the Mediterranean in contemporary Italian scholarship and culture.Contrary to the clearly marked geographical boundaries of the Mediterranean Sea, the flow of metaphors around the theme of Mediterranean-ness is virtually infinite, and may indeed be without parallel in other cultural contexts.This essay will focus on those voices that in Italian culture have responded to the metaphoric call of the sea, but have also curbed its tendency to go alla deriva (adrift) by joining in dialogue with Mediterranean Studies as this field has been configured outside of Italy. 1 Dialogue rather than metaphor will guide my study of the place of modern Italy in the recent boom in Mediterranean Studies, as well as of the specific contribution that Italian thinkers of many kinds have made to the international conversation about Mediterranean-ness. 1 The temptation of metaphor in Mediterranean discourse is highlighted by (among others) Roberto Dainotto, "Asimmetrie mediterranee.