A view from Africa: Edmondo De Amicis and the formation of a national identity in post-unification Italy

Abstract

As a writer of travelogues from Europe, Morocco and Constantinople, Edmondo De Amicis is unique in his ability to combine descriptions of foreign places and peoples with impressions regarding his own country. The encounter with Africa, which De Amicis explores on many levels, reaches beyond the reporting of sights and customs to assert the validity of Western values and beliefs. The present analysis of the travelogue Marocco (1876) demonstrates how travel writing as practiced by De Amicis represents a journey toward self-knowledge, which, given the writer’s immense popularity in late 19th century Italy, has important implications for the broader notion of Italian nationhood.