Università Roma Tre

"From the myth of Europe to the myth of European Union"

Targets

Finding answers to 3 “existential” questions about Europe: 1) what is it ?; 2) where does it come from ?; 3) where does it go?, Since Europe was born from a myth, it arises as a space of civilization, it consolidates in the European Union but, even before being fully realized in a federal body, under the pressure of anti-European and Eurosceptics forces and feelings, it runs the risk of becoming an (un)attenable myth.

Contents

The ideas and theories that have contributed to creating a European identity and to substantiating its ideal and historical models.
Europe is born from a myth: the rape of Europe by Zeus in the form of a bull that from the East leads it to Greece, to Crete, where the first Occidental civilization flourishes, the Mycenaean one.
Identified initially in Greece as opposed to the “barbarian” Persians, Europe over time assumes ideal and historical forms with different traits (the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Respublica christiana, the République des lettres, but also the Dante monarchy, etc.), opposing each time to the “barbarism” on duty, conquering a cultural, scientific-technological, political and civil primacy, and finally becoming a “torch of civilization” in the non-European world, a world to be civilized, i.e. conquered. But Eurocentrism, colonialism, imperialism on the one hand, nationalism, racism, totalitarianism on the other precipitate “civil” Europe, endemically torn by wars and religious and ideological conflicts, in the barbarism of world wars and in the moral defeat of the Holocaust. Europe is reborn after WWII as a European Union, in the name of peace, democracy and the guarantee of individual rights. But after the failed attempts to create a federation on the model of the United States, faced with economic and migratory crises that feed the centrifugal forces of Europexit, the European Union risks becoming an (un)attainable myth.

Course structure

The Course is divided into two parts: a general part and a monographic part

1) General part: The historical reconstruction of the idea of Europe, its genius and its identity as a space of civilization, which were formed and developed along a historical path that begins in ancient Greece and reaches up to the Second post-war period, when, under the pressure of Altiero Spinelli and the other 6 Founding Fathers (K. Adenauer, J. Bech, A. De Gasperi, J. Monnet, R. Schuman, P.-H. Spaak), they materialize politically and institutionally in the European Union under the banner of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which represents the statute of its founding principles and values. So that the third question – where is Europe going? – which needs an adequate response to the Europexit can benefit from the answer of the first two questions.

2) Monographic part: analysis of “classical” texts on the creation of a united Europe
1. For Perpetual Peace (1795) by Immanuel Kant (confederative project)
2. The Manifesto of Ventotene (1943) by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi (federative project)
3. The War and European Unity (1947) by Luigi Einaudi (federative project)
4. The Future of European Civilization (1955) by Albert Camus (federative project)

1. F. Chabod, L’idea d’Europa, Laterza, 2007 (pp. 170)
2. G. Reale, Radici culturali e spirituali dell’Europa, Cortina, 2003 (pp. 160)
NB: 2 first texts are complementary
3. I. Kant, For the Perpetual Peace (1795), any edition (pp. 30 ca.)
4. A. Spinelli, E. Rossi, The Ventotene Manifesto (1943) (pp. 30) [online]
5. L. Einaudi, La guerra e l’unità europea (1947) (pp. 10); no english translation [professor's website]
6. A. Camus, Il futuro della civiltà europea (1955), Castelvecchi 2012 (pp. 35)
7. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000) [online]

N.B. All the texts, except the Kantian one which requires greater effort, are easy to read and easy to understand.

The program also includes the vision of 5 feature films, each dedicated to a specific “barbarism” that Europe has overcome during the difficult and contrasted construction of its civilization. The vision (in the classroom or in private, depending on availability) will be a reason for critical debate on the theme of the feature film.

1. Agorà (Alejandro Amenábar, 2009): religious funfamentalism
2. Goya's Ghosts (Milos Forman, 2006): religious and ideological fundamentalism
3. Amistad (Steven Spielberg, 1997): slavery
4. Nineteen Eighty-Four (Michael Redford, 1984): totalitarianism
5. Germania anno zero (R. Rossellini, 1948): war, endemic evil

To non-attending students: integral lecture of Zygmunt Bauman’s book, Europe (2012, pp. 155) replaces the vision of the 5 features films