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The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of a Global Age

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The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of a Global Age Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series IV, West Europe, Volume, 5 The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of a Global Age Edited by Paulo Janni George F. McLean The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2003 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication The essence of Italian culture and the challenge of global age / edited by Paolo Janni and George F. McLean. p.cm. – (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series IV. West Europe; vol. 5) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. National characteristics, Italian. 2. Italy—Civilization—20th century. 3. Italian—Foreign countries—Ethnic identity. I. Janni, Paolo. II McLean, George F. III. Series. DG455.E77 2002 200254967 305.85’1—dc20 CIP ISBN 1-56518-177-8 (pbk.) Table of Contents Introduction 1 George F. McLean Part I. Italicity and the Emergence of Culture in Our Time Chapter I. Italicity: Global and Local 13 Piero Bassetti Chapter II. Hermeneutics of Culture: Local and Global 25 George F . McLean Chapter III. Globalization and Italian Culture 53 Robert Royal Part II. Italians in America Chapter IV. Italian Cultural Identity and Migration: Italian Communities 69 Abroad and Italian Cultural Identity through Time Maddalena Tirabassi Chapter V. Identical Difference: Notes on Italian and Italian American Identities 93 Fred L. Gardaphe Chapter VI. The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of the Global Age: 113 Italian Cultural Identity and Migration Michael Barone Chapter VII. The Making of Identity in a Globalizing World: An Overview of 119 the Italian American Business Community Consuelo Corradi Part III. America and Its Italians Chapter VIII. Italian Americans in a Pluralistic America 137 John Kromkowski Chapter IX. The Religious Challenge of a Globalizing World for Italian 177 Cultural Identity: Lessons from the American Experience in Public Education Robert A. Destro Part IV. Italicity in a Global Age Chapter X. Locality, Nationality, Globality: The Possible Contribution of Italianness in the Age of Globalization 189 Mauro Magatti Chapter XI. Civic Identity without National Identity? Political Identity in a New 217 and Changing Global Context Vittorio Emanuele Parsi Chapter XII. Globalization, Religion and Culture: Beyond Conflict, beyond Sovereignty 249 Maryann Cusimano Love Index 281 Introduction George F. McLean The Heritage The Western World looks with gratitude and pride to its roots in the Mediterranean. The development of philosophy and democracy in Greece was translated by the Romans into a system of law which acted as a broadly civilizing force; this enabled peoples to live together throughout the Mediterranean basin in the pax romana. With the emergence of Christianity these elements provided the Church with structure for its work, and in turn were transformed in a deeply humanizing manner. Augustine, Benedict, Aquinas and others elaborated structures of spirit and of life which transformed persons from within and reached out to the peoples of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. This constituted the first ecumenical era and the initial weaning of a multi-ethnic tradition within the Holy Roman Empire, East and West. A fresh elan of cultural creativity emerged in the Italian Renaissance. Its new zest for life and nature expressed first by Francis of Assisi, provided new ways to look at the cultural creations of the ancients. It generated intensive, creative interest in geography and astronomy, political structures and art. Today we still live out the impetus which this "re-birth" gave to the socio-political and the cultural life of the West. In all these dimensions of time--ancient and medieval, renaissance and modern--the Italian experience contains essential keys for understanding the progress of humankind. For the emerging nations in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world in search of ways to reconstitute social life in terms of their distinctive cultural identities, the Italian success in fashioning a nation from many regions, each with its own rich tradition, provides striking lessons. For the peoples of other regions of the world who look to the West for models to guide their own development, the Italian genius takes on ever greater importance. It is the purpose of “Globus et Locus” to work out this content of the heritage of Italy as part of the heritage of humanity and to determine how this can be communicated and lived in the many different world contexts. This transnational spirit of Italy, termed “Italicity” is the central topic of this volume. The Collaboration With the realignment of the bipolar geo-political world into a new global order, the human- izing presence of the Italian peoples must be highly visible and active. This is true above all of Washington as a focal point where persons and institutes intersect for policy decisions which effect profoundly the shape of international cooperation and the direction of human progress in our times. An Italian presence in this context is not a matter of military or economic power; it is rather that of providing a source of experience and a legacy of wisdom and creativity for shaping modern culture. More than ever, this cultural endowment needs to be engaged in the process of opening fundamental human aspirations, inspiring social dynamics and generating the creativity through which humankind responds to the challenges of our times. The point of contact with this process of shaping our culture is the university, where literary and artistic criticism is thought through, where social and political structures are modeled and tested in debate, where new dimensions of human sensibility and insight are evolved and translated into methods of social analysis and response. For this reason, as we proceed into an ever more ominous XXIst century, it is particularly important that the resources of the Italian experience be made visible and active in Washington through a university structure. The Catholic University of America (CUA) was particularly suited for this task. - Its identity has made it especially attentive to the classical and cultural traditions of Italy, ancient and modern, with its literature, philosophy and the arts. - Its foundation as a graduate school has given CUA a long tradition of advanced scholarship with a full range of doctoral programs, not only in the arts and humanities, but also in the social and natural sciences and in the professions. - Its relation to the Catholic community gives it special access to the Italian heritage and to the experience of the Italian-America community in adapting this cultural heritage to the pluralistic North American socio-political setting. - Its location in Washington was chosen for presence to the ongoing process of shaping the cultural life of this nation--this has become increasingly central as the role of Washington in world affairs develops exponentially. - It is the home of units deeply involved in issues of culture and change on a national and global basis, viz., a number of Catholic learned societies, The National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs (NCUEA) and The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP). This recently has published three volumes of the Edmund D. Pellegrino Lecture Series on the transformations in Italian life edited by Paolo Janni. These have now joined together in the CUA Center for the Study of Culture and Values (CSCV). For these reasons and circumstances – cultural, political and creative -- The CUA Center for the Study of Culture and Values provides a special place where the Italian heritage can be visible and active in the construction of yet another stage of ecumenical interaction, which at this dawn of a new world order is now fully global in character. The Context The initiation of this joint effort was dramatic. Originally the program had been envisaged for the Fall of 2001 as a celebration of Italian culture. But that plan was swept aside by the events of Sept. 11. suddenly it became clear that cultural heritages in the global interchange of the new millennia were not unambiguous and could even be supremely dangerous. Was it time to abandon the distinctive cultures as expressive of the unique creativity of each people in order to envisage the passive peace of an homogeneous and undifferentiated humanity? If such a prospective half life – or “march of the clones” – strikes one with horror and revulsion, then the work of elaborating an alternative future must be correspondingly urgent. For if the distinct heritages are to continue to play their essential humanizing role, then it is crucial to understand their nature and interrelations at a much deeper level and in a more sensitive manner. Providentially, the two partners in the original plan seemed to constitute a uniquely complementary team to undertake just that work. Globus et Locus was concerned with practical ways in which the essence of Italian life might transcend the confines of the state of Italy. This led inevitably to the issue of how one culture could play a creative role in the new global interchange of peoples. The Center for the Study of Culture and Values, for its part, had encouraged and published 100 book-length studies of how people could draw on their cultures in facing present problems. The new events pushed it inevitably into the heart of the new crisis; how are culturally awakened peoples to live peacefully and productively one with another? In view of this new situation the joint program was rescheduled and recast to read “The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of a Global Age.” When the two teams met their complementarity was immediately evident. Neither was able or interested in doing the work of the other, but each was vitally interested in the challenge being faced by the other.
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