Identity and Conflict in Tuscany

From Firenze University Press Book

Edited by:

Silvia Ross, University College Cork, Ireland

Claire Honess, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

Despite the prevailing image of Tuscany as the idealized cradle of the
Renaissance, the region has also been characterized by a less positive portrayal: as the architectural and geographical embodiment of conflict and
factionalism. Since the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Tuscan city states
and their outlying territories have witnessed acute political clashes, such
as those that characterized the reign of the Medici. Dante’s Commedia,
to mention the most notable example, provides the paradigmatic literary
depiction of Florentine conflict, in the poet’s insistence on the internecine
clashes between Guelfs and Ghibellines, Blacks and Whites (see, for example, Honess, 2006), a trope on which generations of writers after him
continue to capitalize, to a wide variety of ends.

In the last century, Tuscany experienced conflict on its terrain as a direct result of World War II, where battles between Allies and partisans and
the forces of Nazi-Fascism were played out in Florence’s neighborhoods,
with the city occupied on its north side and liberated south of the Arno.
Florence’s spatial configuration as divided city thus resurfaces particularly strongly in this period, as films like Rossellini’s Paisà have so aptly
illustrated (see Marcus, 1999). Furthermore, demographic conflicts have
characterized and still characterize Tuscan landscapes in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: one need only think of the Roma
camps on Florence’s outskirts, or the Chinese community in Prato, to see
that tensions between so-called autochthonous and non-autochthonous
populations endure in Tuscany.

This interdisciplinary volume of essays is the result of a collaborative
project which traces the concepts of identity and conflict in the regional
space of Tuscany. It focuses on the period from the nineteenth century to
the present, to illustrate the ways in which Tuscan conflicts emerge according to different modern and contemporary contexts, and the important
role that identity formation plays in regional representations. The various
contributions examine conflict in terms of outright war, but also as a form
of struggle between different demographic groups or indeed conflict based
on identity politics. In so doing, they also address key concepts relevant to
society today: the interplay between conflict and identity and how clashes between opposing identities are negotiated and represented in the humanities.

Finally, the volume analyzes the question of region within the national and global contexts, using the renowned Region of Tuscany as a
case study for a consideration of these questions. Thus, the collection represents a targeted exploration of the theme of identity and conflict in the
context of Tuscan Studies, an exploration that is enriched by the diverse
disciplinary perspectives (history, literature, linguistics) it encompasses.

DOI: 10.36253/978–88–6655–862–0

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