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The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is, as The Economist described it in a recent column by Tom Nuttall, a dull piece of reading. At best, stressed Nuttal, it helps build the trust between sending and receiving countries that is the foundation of any meaningful international policy. Then how did a non-binding, declaratory intergovernmental agreement became a crucial part of the political discourse in a considerable number of EU countries, effectively leading to the withdrawal of several governments from the Compact? The upheaval caused by the adoption of the Compact (which had already been discussed and agreed upon by all signatory governments in July, before becoming a token for nationalist propaganda) has once again demonstrated the inability of the EU to grow towards a sensitive migration policy, and the recklessness of many governments in refusing to engage in a reasonable conversation with other international actors in favour of a political line led by sensationalism and misinformation. The aim of this research paper is to map the development of the debate over the Global Compact in Italy building up to its abstention during the Marrakesh Conference on December 10th-11th. The research focuses on the main actors of the current political discourse in Italy, their inaccuracy and deliberate ambiguity in addressing concerns over the Compact during Parliamentary sessions and through the mass media, and the failure of the opposition, together with civil society, to leverage a valid counterargument to the growing hysteria about the migration crisis. The expected outcomes are the identification of common patterns in the nationalist discourse in Italy and the advancement of possible new practices to effectively foster a consistent, level-headed conversation about migration management that steers away from sterile symbolism and responsibly addresses community issues at the national and EU levels.

This article analyses the impact of a recent revival of nationalist narratives in The Netherlands on the issue of European identity. In the past decade, a sensitive and very salient debate has risen around the controversial figure of Zwarte Piet, part of a popular national festival called Sinterklaas. The article explains the nature of this tradition and elaborates on the development of the public debate on the topic. By analysing the defensive reaction towards criticism from Dutch action groups, the European Parliament and the United Nations, the article intends to expose an emphasis on nationalist arguments and invented traditions. It is often argued that the debate has already led to an increase in polarization in the country itself, but the article shows that it could also potentially function as a threat to European identity.

The article examines the evolution of the Italian right framed in the broader phenomenon of the European right. The theoretical framework of reference comforts us in analysing the ideological configuration of the galaxy of the new right, which presents itself in its substantial homogeneity and in the affirmation of a new policy that, founded on the call to the people, claims the demand for an essential modification of the current socio-economic reality and of the prevailing socio-cultural conformation. The Italian Right contains specific peculiarities outlining a path that has led it to abandon legacies, appeals, echoes of the old ideological baggage. The path has not been linear. At first it accelerated in a moderate direction, then it saw a discontinuity in the direction of the recovery of certain radical traits. Our investigation into the right and the path that today sees Fratelli d’Italia as the main political formation of the Italian right is mainly based on research that sees local administrators and the Party on the Ground in general as the object of analysis, which we will use here to infer the main orientations and relevant confirmations on important ideological aspects. All this formed the basis of a broader research project involving much of the local and national ruling class, the conclusions of which will be offered in a subsequent publication. Here, the initial results and the analysis of official documents have been extremely useful in tracing the path taken by the Italian right.

This article argues for a renovation in the study of nationalism by addressing the issue of the rationality underlying the decisions by citizens willing to leave their homelands. From the example of unforced exiles from the 1939 Republican diaspora (and inner exiles as well), the text starts with providing a theory of disidentification from a nation for the sake of civic commitment. Having shown the relevance of jointly studying the language of nation and patria, it focuses on Spanish post-Francoist historiography of the Early modern period for showing its unbalanced account of discourse revolving around patria in favor of that of nation. Thereafter, it provides a comparative overview of the scholarly interest in patriotism in modern history as depending on different national trajectories of political culture. Finally, it claims a methodological reorientation in the study of nationalism and patriotism by distinguishing between nation and patria as terms, as concepts, and as analytical categories defining distinctive collective identities.

The prominent Serbian and Yugoslav composer Petar Konjovic (1883-1970) wrote five operas between 1900 and 1960. Konjovic?s operatic opus represents his homeland and his spiritual spectrum: in the first place, indelible memories of his childhood and youth focused on the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, in particular its heroic repertoire of Serbian literature. Consequently, three out of five of Konjovic?s music dramas are derived from Serbian epic and theatre plays. In addition to Ivo Vojnovic?s Death of the Jugovic Mother, these are Dragutin Ilic?s Wedding ofMilos Obilic and Laza Kostic?s Maksim Crnojevic. Therefore three of Konjovic?s operas can be conditionally brought together as being in many ways related, not only by their content but also by music and the scope of time they were created: The Fairy?s Veil (based on Wedding of Milos Obilic)during World War I, The Fatherland (based on Death of the Jugovic Mother)during World War II, and between them The Prince of Zeta (based on Maksim Crnojevic). The last of them, subtitled ?A sacred festival drama? (following with its subtitle the idea of Wagner?s Parsifal) had its gala performance in Belgrade National Theatre on 19 October 1983. The structure of the musical composition was inspired by the ?Kosovo mystery play? by Vojnovic (1857-1929), an outstanding dramatist from Dubrovnik. In this case, the playwright was a narrator of the historical-legendary past of the Serbs. Drawing on Serbian national epic poetry which deals with the downfall of the Serbian medieval empire caused by the Turkish invasion, Vojnovic constructed his play on the basis of the central poem of the epic cycle about Kosovo, The Death of the Jugovic Mother. Both the epic and Vojnovic?s play present the tragedy of Serbian people in the figure of the Mother. She dies with a broken heart after the loss of her heroic husband, Jug-Bogdan, and her nine sons, the Jugovici, in the decisive battle against the Turks in the Kosovo field in 1389. Vojnovic?s play was performed in Belgrade and Zagreb in 1906 and 1907 respectively, as well as in Trieste (1911) and Prague (1926); and several Serbian and Croatian composers wrote incidental music for it. Slovenian composer Mirko Polic was also inspired by it and his work was performed in Ljubljana in 1947, while Konjovic?s ?festival drama? finished in 1960 was staged much later. Its premiere in 1983 was scrupulously prepared by the father-son duo, Dusan Miladinovic (conductor) and Dejan Miladinovic (director), who paid special attention to the visual aspect of the performance. The director, together with the scenographer Aleksandar Zlatovic created for The Fatherland a semi-permanent set of symbolical characters, with an enormous raven, made of jute, replacing the backdrop. The costume designer was influenced by medieval frescoes from Serbian monasteries in Kosovo. The director himself conceived a ?mute? and motionless appearance of figures of Serbian warriors in ?tableaux vivants? by placing them in attitudes of combat on the edge of the revolving stage during the curtain music between the acts. What the composer Konjovic aimed for with his last music drama was to eternalize in music the beautiful Serbian epic, depicting the tragic history of his people and thus reminding Serbs of their roots. In this sense The Fatherland was Konjovic?s Ninth Symphony and his oath of Kosovo. nema

Four narratives feature in this article—Maya Angelou’s All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes ( 1986 ), Aminatta Forna’s The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter’s Quest ( 2002 ), Jackie Kay’s Red Dust Road ( 2010 ) and Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria ( 2012 ). The article discusses, in their order of publication, the ‘returns’ that take these authors back from the USA or the UK, respectively, to Ghana, Sierra Leone and (in two cases) Nigeria. The article addresses the commonalities in the authors’ quests for knowledge derived by re-assessing both the African ‘fatherland’ and their own links with it, and analyses how such explorations combine and involve personal/affective realizations with public/societal awareness and knowledge. The four texts in compelling but different ways expand the transatlantic dimensions of these writers’ ambiguous insider/outsider positions as they re-assess both themselves and ‘homelands’ that are no longer ‘home’. The complex sources and painful aspects of the evolving knowledge/s recorded in these narratives by gifted writers of African affiliation contribute to the texts’ authority and significance.