Rosario Forlenza
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198817444
- eISBN:
- 9780191859045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198817444.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
The Introduction presents an outline of the book, its sources and empirical material, and its theoretical and methodological approach, which rests on the key concept of meaning formation in ...
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The Introduction presents an outline of the book, its sources and empirical material, and its theoretical and methodological approach, which rests on the key concept of meaning formation in liminality. Following the social and cultural anthropology of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, liminality refers to a period of transition during which the normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed, opening the way to novelty and imagination and generating new meanings, ideas, and consciousness. Lived experiences in liminal times generate horizons of expectations, beliefs, and attitudes that transform social and political identities and shape the emergence of a new political order. The anthropological approach advanced here suggests that the constitution of a political subjectivity, at the collective as well at the individual level, occurs mainly through experiences and results in fundamental changes in consciousness.Less
The Introduction presents an outline of the book, its sources and empirical material, and its theoretical and methodological approach, which rests on the key concept of meaning formation in liminality. Following the social and cultural anthropology of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, liminality refers to a period of transition during which the normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed, opening the way to novelty and imagination and generating new meanings, ideas, and consciousness. Lived experiences in liminal times generate horizons of expectations, beliefs, and attitudes that transform social and political identities and shape the emergence of a new political order. The anthropological approach advanced here suggests that the constitution of a political subjectivity, at the collective as well at the individual level, occurs mainly through experiences and results in fundamental changes in consciousness.
Rosario Forlenza
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198817444
- eISBN:
- 9780191859045
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198817444.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
This book links the emergence of democracy in Italy after World War II to human experiences and the symbolic formation of meaning in a time of political and existential uncertainty. Between 1943 and ...
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This book links the emergence of democracy in Italy after World War II to human experiences and the symbolic formation of meaning in a time of political and existential uncertainty. Between 1943 and 1948 Italians experienced the most intense period of the war, with its hardship and violence, and the most intense period of social, economic, and political reconstruction, with its hopes and vitality. Unlike conventional accounts that focus on institutions, ideologies, and political norms, On the Edge of Democracy examines the aspirations, expectations, and hopes of real people in real time—the social dramas the individuals engaged with. Adopting an anthropological approach, it sees the process of democratization in Italy as analogous to a ritual passage, in which social order was suspended and then reasserted following a liminal time during which ideas and beliefs were reformulated and new meanings, symbols, and identities emerged. The period of civil war 1943–5, especially, was a time of brutality and dramatic violence as well as a critical juncture of creative existential pluralism. The events during the period following the collapse of Fascism and the disintegration of national unity created a new popular consciousness and changed the relationships among individuals, and between individual and political power. Existential crisis and lived experiences during this period of uncertainty generated new meanings, interpretations, and hopes that shaped post-Fascist democracy. Democracy in Italy was the consequence of ordinary’s people reactions to, and symbolization of, the circumstances which they went through in those extraordinary times.Less
This book links the emergence of democracy in Italy after World War II to human experiences and the symbolic formation of meaning in a time of political and existential uncertainty. Between 1943 and 1948 Italians experienced the most intense period of the war, with its hardship and violence, and the most intense period of social, economic, and political reconstruction, with its hopes and vitality. Unlike conventional accounts that focus on institutions, ideologies, and political norms, On the Edge of Democracy examines the aspirations, expectations, and hopes of real people in real time—the social dramas the individuals engaged with. Adopting an anthropological approach, it sees the process of democratization in Italy as analogous to a ritual passage, in which social order was suspended and then reasserted following a liminal time during which ideas and beliefs were reformulated and new meanings, symbols, and identities emerged. The period of civil war 1943–5, especially, was a time of brutality and dramatic violence as well as a critical juncture of creative existential pluralism. The events during the period following the collapse of Fascism and the disintegration of national unity created a new popular consciousness and changed the relationships among individuals, and between individual and political power. Existential crisis and lived experiences during this period of uncertainty generated new meanings, interpretations, and hopes that shaped post-Fascist democracy. Democracy in Italy was the consequence of ordinary’s people reactions to, and symbolization of, the circumstances which they went through in those extraordinary times.
Rosario Forlenza
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198817444
- eISBN:
- 9780191859045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198817444.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
The Conclusion contrasts the dominant structuralist and functionalist approaches to democracy and democratization, with the concept of the passage to democracy as an endogenous process of historical ...
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The Conclusion contrasts the dominant structuralist and functionalist approaches to democracy and democratization, with the concept of the passage to democracy as an endogenous process of historical and symbolic articulation, and as the symbolization of lived experiences that engender transformations in consciousness, meanings, and beliefs. Rather than assuming a universal and externally determined model for the democratic process, it makes use of the Italian case to argue that democracy is a lengthy and ongoing narrative, and a process of meaning-formation in the context of political and existential uncertainty. Democratizing processes are determined not by socio-economic and cultural factors, not by the pursuit of strategies by the elites, but by a complex interweaving of individual and collective reaction to revolution, war, and dictatorship.Less
The Conclusion contrasts the dominant structuralist and functionalist approaches to democracy and democratization, with the concept of the passage to democracy as an endogenous process of historical and symbolic articulation, and as the symbolization of lived experiences that engender transformations in consciousness, meanings, and beliefs. Rather than assuming a universal and externally determined model for the democratic process, it makes use of the Italian case to argue that democracy is a lengthy and ongoing narrative, and a process of meaning-formation in the context of political and existential uncertainty. Democratizing processes are determined not by socio-economic and cultural factors, not by the pursuit of strategies by the elites, but by a complex interweaving of individual and collective reaction to revolution, war, and dictatorship.
