Encountering "Italicity" beyond Borders

An Example of Cultural Mediation

Abstract

The paper focuses on the concept of ''Italicity'', or ''Cultural Italophony'' in today’s world of continuous intertwining, a world of multiple and non-exclusive identities. As an example, and a model of such a cultural choice, the paper considers the case of cultural mediator Grytzko Mascioni (1936-2003), a Swiss and Italian, and eventually an ''Adriatic'' – Croatian. According to the closing remarks of the paper, the non-state or national Italicity-Cultural Italophony has the right to participate, for example, in Swiss territory and its local identity by merging and dialoguing with the present ''Swissness''. On the other hand, Italicity-Italophony can, embodying its peculiar values, be defined as a belonging or identity that surpasses a strictly national and political one. In this way, it effectively represents a non-invasive but enriching cultural result that is, ultimately, also the result of Italian culture but manifested outside of Italy. A poet, author of significant essays on ancient Greece, and, finally, of a novel written entirely in (and partly about) Croatia, Mascioni, who was also a director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Zagreb, under the sign of cultural Italophony, played a crucial role in the rapprochement between the then newly established Croatian state and the Western European culture and civilization.