(Ri)definire i confini dell’ebraicità. Strategie di inclusione/esclusione nell’età liberale

Autore: Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti
In: Genesis. XVIII/1, 2019
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Abstract

Drawing on Italian primary sources – mainly Jewish periodicals – and on a rich international scholarship, this article explores the ways in which Italian Jews have represented and discussed the redefinition of the boundaries of the community in the post-emancipation period. This reflection focuses on the use of categories of self- representation – nation, religion, race –, on their evolution and specific functions in the context of legal equality, nationalization and secularization. Through the analysis of these dynamics, we can shed light not only on the cultural history of the Jewish minority and on its cultural integration, but also on the transnational circulation of images and stereotypes and on some peculiarities of the Italian context. We can in fact interpret the evolution of Jewish self-fashioning as a – sometimes defensive – response to a much broader Italian and European discourse on national identities, human differences, religion, and state building.