Memory and political cultures (original) (raw)

Memory is the necessary basis of culture, in particular political culture: in our definition, the way each country conceives state, people and nation, the relationship between ethnicity, nationality and citizenship, and the rights and duties which derive. This is quite evident in both the main European political cultures: the Romantic one, which emphasizes the "objective" elements of the nation (foremost language and the ethnic characteristics), as found in Germany, and the one going back to the spirit of the Enlightenment, which emphasizes the civic "subjective" elements, as found in France. The role of memory, however, is very important also in other countries, such as Israel, whose political culture is connected both to Bible myths and to the Shoah, which is remembered annually on the "Day of Memory". The case of Italy clearly confirms the close relationships between memory and political culture. Suffice it to recall the verses where, at the beginnings of the Risorgimento, humus of the Italian nation-state, Alessandro Manzoni, one of the most important Italian poets, called for a nation "one of arms, language, altars, memory, blood and hearts".