Contemporary Europe is again haunted by the old stereotypes of corrupted southerners and virtuous northerners, lazy Mediterraneans and vigorous Teutons. This paper aims to survey these tropes among current academic and public debates, from postcolonial and southern studies perspectives. These labels and views have to do with discursive formations such as orientalism and meridionism, and stretch back to the Mediterranean colonial history dominated by northern modernity. Terms like “change”, “innovation”, “modernity” on one hand, and “immobility”, “tradition”, “backwardness” on the other, can be easily and predictably attributed to the two geo-cultural spaces. Nevertheless, our task is less attributing the right category to the right side than disrupting the whole paradigm, under the pressure of the migrations from the South.
For a Border-Dialogue in ‘Fortress Europe’: The Reappropriation of Mediterranean Routes
CAZZATO, Luigi Carmine
2013-01-01
Abstract
Contemporary Europe is again haunted by the old stereotypes of corrupted southerners and virtuous northerners, lazy Mediterraneans and vigorous Teutons. This paper aims to survey these tropes among current academic and public debates, from postcolonial and southern studies perspectives. These labels and views have to do with discursive formations such as orientalism and meridionism, and stretch back to the Mediterranean colonial history dominated by northern modernity. Terms like “change”, “innovation”, “modernity” on one hand, and “immobility”, “tradition”, “backwardness” on the other, can be easily and predictably attributed to the two geo-cultural spaces. Nevertheless, our task is less attributing the right category to the right side than disrupting the whole paradigm, under the pressure of the migrations from the South.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
