Island societies and mainland nation-building in the Mediterranean: Sardinia and Corsica in Italian, French, and Catalan nationalism

In the history of Modern Europe, islands have generally been considered as passive spaces. Historically, however, Mediterranean island societies have played important-and often active-roles in the formation of nation-states and in nation-building processes. Little attention has been paid to the ways in which island societies have affected mainland nationalism. This article argues that Mediterranean islands offered rhetorical and symbolic elements that proved useful for the construction of mainland European national identities, largely because islandness, from a continental perspective, was seen as capable of conserving authenticity. This article draws upon the Mediterranean island case studies of Sardinia and Corsica and their relationships to Catalan nationalism, French nationalism, and Italian nationalism as well as wider nation-building processes.