La via italiana al martirio : L’uso pubblico delle vittime della nazione tra Risorgimento ed età liberale

Using a prevalently historiographical approach, this essay aims to reconstruct the representation and uses of patriotic martyrdom during the long Nineteenth century in Italy. Crossing different disciplinary fields – political history, literature, iconography – and basing itself on various types of sources, it reconstructs the passage from the figure of the martyr to that of the victim, from the religious sphere to the political one: at the centre is in fact the intervention of a State that aspires to take possession of a fragmented theme to construct a cohesion around a precise idea of homeland and nation. The exceptionality of the Italian case, destined to change radically during the First World War, is delineated through a valorisation of the sacrifice of the “civilian” patriot over that of the soldier. A vivid picture emerges, breaking out of often rigid disciplinary fences, framing itself within a fully modern ideological and anthropological context, which achieve its completion in the circular scheme typical of the victim paradigm.