Università Roma Tre

From the myth of Europe to the myth of European Union

The course program aims to historically focus on the "phenomenon" of Europe in its conceptual-ideological dimension and in the current political-institutional form of the European Union.
Europe is born from a myth: the rape of Europe by Zeus in the form of a bull that leads from the East to the West, in Greece where the first Mediterranean civilization flourishes, the Mycenaean one. Initially identified in Greece as an identity opposition to the Persian "barbarians", Europe over time assumes different forms with different traits (Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Respublica Christiana, République des Lettres, etc.), opposing from time to time to to "barbarian" in turn, tearing himself into internal wars, conquering a cultural, scientific-technological, political and civil primacy, and finally becoming a "torch of civilization" in the non-European world to be civilized, or to be conquered. Eurocentrism, colonialism, imperialism on the one hand, nationalism, racism, totalitarianism on the other fall the civilization of Europe in the barbarism of two world wars and the moral defeat of the Holocaust.
After the Second World War Europe is reborn as the European Union, under the banner of peace, democracy and guarantee of subjective rights. But after the unsuccessful attempts to create a federation on the model of the United States, facing the crisis of values that compromise its existence and facing the centrifugal forces of Eurexit, the European Union returns to be a myth.

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

1) General part: historical reconstruction of the idea of Europe, its identity and its civilization, which were formed and developed along an historical path that begins in ancient Greece and comes up to our days, when, under the pressure of Altiero Spinelli, takes shape politically and institutionally in the European Union under the banner of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

2) Monographic part: analysis of two "classical" texts on the formation of a united Europe
1. For the Perpetual Peace of Immanuel Kant
2. The Ventotene Manifesto by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi

The program also includes the vision (in the classroom or in private, depending on the availability) of some very significant features related to the construction of European civilization
1. Agora (Alejandro Amenábar, 2009): the shadows of Europe: political theocracy and persecution
2. The Last Inquisitor (Milos Forman, 2006): the shadows of Europe: dogmatism and persecution
3. Dance Excelsior: the Europe of Progress
4. Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini, 1948): the ruins of Europe
5. A New World - Altiero Spinelli and the United Europe (Alberto Negrìn, Rai 1 -13/12/2016): the reconstruction of Europe
6. The Hunting Party (Richard Shepard, 2007): the Europe of Law and Justice

1. F. Chabod, The idea of Europe, Laterza, 2007 (pp. 170)
2. G. Reale, Cultural and spiritual roots of Europe, Cortina, 2003 (pp. 160)
NB: the two texts are complementary

3. I. Kant, For the Perpetual Peace (any edition; pp. 30 ca.)
4. A. Spinelli and E. Rossi, The Ventotene Manifesto (downloadable from internet; pp. 30)
5. Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union (downloadable from internet)