Intimate identities and language revitalization in Veneto, Northern Italy

Abstract

Abstract In this article, I explore how language revitalization initiatives are rescaled as part of a local, historical and sociocultural revitalization project in which ethnonationalist aspirations emerge in Northeastern Italy’s Veneto region. Through an analysis of political emblems, textual artifacts, and speech participants’ stories, I examine how the promotion of the local language is related to a developing sense of collective and intimate identity, especially vis-à-vis the many migrants and refugees that have landed in Italy, and Europe, in recent years. In the last decade, these new flows of migrants have triggered strong reactions by Italians, such as recent discourses about national identity and the aggressive anti-immigration politics promoted by the Lega Nord (‘Northern League’). I show how politics, history, and language become part of a complex spatiotemporal configuration in which chronotopic stances and intimate identities are enacted in speech participants’ everyday lives.