Italy's Orient: Introduction

For many decades the work of Edward Said has dominated, and largely continues to dominate, the ways in which ‘Orientalism’ and the cultural relations between Europe and Asiatic diversities have been studied. The aim of these articles is not to add yet another chapter to the now vast debates on the category of Orientalism as proposed by Said, but instead through a series of specific research themes they aim to illustrate the diversity and variety of ‘Orientalisms’ – experiences, reflections, researches – that emerged in Italian culture at a time when ‘Europeaness’ was being very strongly asserted in relations with the Asiatic world. The articles that follow seek first to explain the reasons for Italy’s interest in the Orient in the modern and contemporary period, and then above all to draw attention to the complex circulation and interaction at a European level of the authors, the texts and ideas on these subjects that reveal the need for approaches that are at once historical, cultural, intellectual and transnational.