INTRODUCTORY WORD

The aim of this book is to focus on the development of national awareness elaborated around a series of different case studies, in which the terms nation, homeland and people have been applied. This Romantic lexicon identifies similar but various conceptions of the national idea in some countries dominated by Italian, German and Slavic cultures, and in some groups or minorities such as the Jews and the Vlachs in Central and Mediterranean Europe. In order to clarify the cultural framework, the authors explore the construction of identity through folk tunes, poetry inspired by popular culture, and opera in which the national myths or heroes appear. In the self-making tradition, the national traits are sustained by the process of embodiment of any regional utterance, and also by disregarding the “other”, in particular the minorities. The symbols of the nation, as an achievement of the power that flourishes from the sense of belonging, are defined “per differentiam”. Theoretical perspectives are shaped by the new approaches to this topic, taking into consideration the artistic issues as socio-historical events and subsequently evaluating them in their aesthetic quality.