Italy’s Postcolonial ‘Question’. Views from the Southern Frontier of Europe

Italy, like other European countries, reckons today with its sense of cultural roots within a unified Europe.Current re-examinations of its postcolonial national identity can be seen as a reaction to the fast-paced demographic changes brought about by immigration and globalisation. This is true also for the other European countries. In what follows, we examine what constitutes the postcolonial condition of contemporary Italy and place such condition within a larger European postcolonial framework. By tracing the specificities of the geopolitical dislocation of Italy as a Southern European country, we argue that the paradigm emerging from this national case contributes to redefining the notion of a ‘European’ postcolonial as a whole. To this aim, we identify lines of continuity that connect Italy to other European countries, such as colonial history—‘projected as Europe’s externality’ —as well as a colonial legacy that deeply affected the formation of national identities across Europe3 and still impinges upon its contemporary social landscape. Contemporary transnational migrations—which are the consequences of the disparities that the colonial system has created around the world—are at the core of both Italian and European postcolonialities, since the presence of migrants and postcolonial subjects on European soil reactivates memories, fantasies, and imaginaries related to that legacy. They also reinstate relationships of power created by colonialism—such as processes of racialisation and racism, for instance—which are reproduced and reinforced in contemporary postcolonial societies to defend a white, Christian, European identity.