The Identitarian Re-Interpretations of Italians from Istria

This article investigates the dynamics of the Istrian peoples’ identitarianprocess2.The two social groups of “who remained” and “who left” - historicalconsequences of the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus - are the object of our analysis. Theunderlying theme focuses to the evolution of identity, according to two differentcontexts, Istrian territorial roots and territorial dispersion. The reasoning steps, criticalthinking and the deepening of analysis develop around the concept of Italian-ness,proceeding with complementary approaches. The first thanks to an elaboration of thecollective memory and of the collective identity, going to re-interpret the findingsfrom two studies about those who left and those who remained; the second one, witha perspective reconstruction by the examination of the secondary sources, of textsby writers and of several informal interviews. We have been led to see the changesthat affect the identity of the individuals, or the groups, concerned and to wonderabout the nature of the sense of continuity with which these changes are experienced.The result, in particular, allows for invalidating the idea of the identitarian definitionrooted in a nostalgic memory of the lost homeland, in the case of dispersed Istrianpeoples; while in the Italians who remained, the idea of an unproblematic experienceof the commonality, groupness and cohesion in redefining boundary crossing and thedevelopment of networks in the new national configuration(s).