National consciousness for social well-being. Linguistic perspectives on the unification of Italy in letters to the editor in the English press

The unification of Italy was the 19th-century political and social movement which developed a national consciousness while freeing the Italian states from foreign domination. The Italian patriotic discourse was disseminated in Britain during social events organised by associations and groups of English radicals focusing on Italy’s historical cultural heritage and on the idea of progress. Unlike previous research, this study adopts a corpus driven approach integrated with discourse analysis to analyse a corpus of Letters to the Editor on the Unification of Italy (LEUI) in the English press. The findings highlight how personal viewpoints and evaluative discursive strategies are used to shape public opinion, legitimising the patriots’ decisions to free Italy while building a sense of national consciousness for social well-being.