Abstract
Nations are one of the most well-established constructs in our society, and they represent a very attractive benchmark for personal and social identification. Political speeches, as well as, for example, media discourse and popular culture, constantly reiterate myth, culture and history of nations in order to reaffirm and preserve their positive image, and this tendency doesn’t seem to be weakened by some contemporary events like globalization and the reinforcement of transnational systems.
 As a proof of this trend, the present work proposes an in-depth analysis of the speech held by the then Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the European Parliament on the occasion of the inauguration of the Italian semester of presidency on July 2, 2014, aiming to demonstrate that also supranational contexts are exploited to reiterate national identity and priorities.
Highlights
As a proof of this trend, thè present work proposes an in-depth analysis of thè speech held by thè Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at thè European Parliament on thè occasion of thè inauguration of thè Italian semester of presidency on July 2, 2014, aiming to demonstrate that supranational contexts are exploited to reiterate national identity and priorities
Identity is a constantly re-negotiated and re-conceptualized notion, very problematic to defìne due to its fluidity and its m arked relatedness to thè context to w hich it pertains.1Nevertheless, when we speak about collective identities it is ascertained that they have to be considered as a cultural and politicai construction that defìnes “who we are”
N ational identity is no exception to this conception: n a tions have been defìned as “im agined com m unities”2in w hich a people’s com m on historical past, w ith all its m yths and traditions, has mostly been created ad hoc in order to justify thè aim of reaching a territorial and politicai unity and to create a deep-rooted sense of belonging am ong thè population.[3]
Summary
Identity is a constantly re-negotiated and re-conceptualized notion, very problematic to defìne due to its fluidity and its m arked relatedness to thè context to w hich it pertains.1Nevertheless, when we speak about collective identities it is ascertained that they have to be considered as a cultural and politicai construction that defìnes “who we are”. W hatever thè defìnition of inclusive and exclusive we, this pronoun has an “aggregating” function,[32] inasm uch as it allow s thè speaker to consider th eir audience as an active part of their discourse and to intensify thè sense of community This is even more so when we consider thè specifìc aspect we are interested in, nam ely thè expression of national identity.[33] This function can be fulfìlled when thè use of we is very generic and comprehensive, as much as to include a whole population or even thè entire hum an kind.
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