Irresistible Signs: The Genius of Language and Italian National Identity

Language is now understood as a key component of cultural identity, but discourses on linguistic nationalism are only a few centuries old. In Irresistible Signs, Paola Gambarota investigates the connection between Italian language and national identity over four hundred years, from late-Renaissance linguistic theories to nineteenth-century nationalist myths.

also explores how images of national communities are represented within vernaculars, affirming their influence in shaping contemporary models of monolingual nationhood.