Ludovic Brunot

About Ludovic’s Research:

My PhD project investigates the ways in which neo-irredentism developed as a political and cultural ideology in post-1945 Italy, and how it shaped Italian identity and far-right politics. “Neo-irredentism” built on Italian irredentism, a 19th-century nationalist movement geared towards “redeeming” Italian-speaking regions from foreign domination. Whereas traditional irredentism had centred on territorial claims, the new movement of neo-irredentism revolved around historical justice, cultural legacy, and remembrance. It emerged after Italy had ceded eastern Adriatic territory to Yugoslavia, prompting the emigration of Italian-speaking populations from Istria and Dalmatia. The exiled – Esuli – reframed the history of their “lost” native lands as a national trauma, silencing the history of fascist domination and violence, and foregrounding a dichotomy between civilized Italianità and barbaric Slavism. This narrative glorified the fallen Italian soldiers of the Second World War, who, through their “sacrifice”, had sanctified the eastern Adriatic as Italian land.
Neo-irredentism evolved into a powerful cultural and political framework. It shaped Italian political culture by promoting the public remembrance both of the “exodus” and the Foibe massacres. Italian governments and far-right groups pursued such memory politics as part of nationalist agendas. Imbued by anti-communism and anti-Slavism, these agendas appealed to Cold War narratives which depicted Slavic communities as a communist menace. Narratives of victimization were eagerly adopted by far-right movements, and later influenced mainstream parties, which integrated neo-irredentist ideas into wider political discourses, thus reshaping Italian nationalism. By the 1990s and 2000s, neo-irredentist discourse gained recognition and was integrate to the Italian national myth.