Il corpo della Nazione. Mito politico e immaginario nazionalistico nella narrazione del Milite ignoto

The Body of the Nation. Political Myth and Nationalistic Imaginary in the Narration of the Milite Ignoto - In Europe the birth of the mass societies is related to the First World War, epilogue to the era of nationalizations. It gave birth to that myth of the soldier which would represent a crucial point in the construction of nationalistic symbolic apparatuses. In the Italian case, the narration and the sacralization of the Unknown Soldier (Milite Ignoto) constitute their key elements. The research aims at analysing the genesis of a nationalistic political myth anticipating that "disciplinary society" which would identify with Fascism. No-one’s body is the aptest one to turn ideally into the everyone’s body according to the uprising nationalistic imaginary. The case history shows that even a very recent and painful past can become the object not of a simple representation but of a real social construction. Such a construction * Universita di Cassino, Dipartimento di Scienze motorie e della salute, Viale I. Bonomi snc, 03043 Cassino (Fr), tel. 0776.2994413, mail: nicola_porro@fastwebnet.it. works at the crossroads of identity and memory. Furthermore, it struggles to elaborate an identitarian public memory in which the whole community must recognize itself. Key words: Body; Nation building; Identity. Parole chiave: Corpo; Nazionalizzazione; Identita.