Condiscendenza con affetto. Le due culture e la questione del divorzio in Italia vista dagli anglofoni (1900-1974)

Affectionate Condescension: The “Two Cultures” and Anglophone Views of Italy’s Divorce Question (1900-1974)
This article examines the way the English-language press judged Italy on its treatment of the divorce question in the twentieth century, arguing that the fate of divorce-law proposals came to be seen as a litmus test of the true nature of Italian culture. The introduction of divorce laws in most of the western world by 1900 was a result of state formation and the corresponding erosion of religious jurisdiction over private life. Although Italy had been the bright star of liberalism in the 1860s, its refusal to introduce a divorce law throughout most of the twentieth century was interpreted as a sign of lurking medievalism. After World War II the continued absence of a divorce law appeared particularly anomalous against the background of extraordinary economic and social progress. The English-language press followed the campaigns to introduce a divorce law in the 1960s with great interest, and when the Italian public affirmed their support for divorce in the referendum of 1974, Italy was finally held to have shed its vestiges of medieval culture and fully embraced progress and modernity.