Walls that Bridge; or, What We Can Learn from the Roman Walls

• Authors: Giorgio Mariani
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Giorgio MarianiUniversity of Rome “La Sapienza” ItalyWalls that Bridge; or, What We Can Learn from the Roman Walls Abstract: When, during the latest US electoral campaign, Pope Francis criticized Trump’s idea of building a wall between Mexico and the US, reiterating his favorite  point that “we do not need to build walls, but bridges,” the Trump camp retorted that the Pope lives in a city state surrounded by walls, in a city itself surrounded by other walls dating back to ancient Roman times. Why wasn't he concerned with those walls? As one can see, even though Roman walls have completely lost their original function and survive mainly as tourist sites, they also remain powerful political and cultural symbols. The scope of this essay is to offer, from the perspective of an Americanist who was born and raised in Rome, some comparative reflections on  what we can learn today from the history of Roman walls, as well as from their symbolic afterlives.Keywords: Roman walls, walls as rhetoric, US literature, walls as bridges, walls as dividers

Keywords

EN

Roman walls; walls as rhetoric; US literature; walls as bridges; walls as dividers

• Publisher: University of Silesia Press
• Journal: Review of International American Studies
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2018-06-30

Contributors

author

Giorgio Mariani