Letteratura nazionale civile e Risorgimento italiano. Tommaseo e le Lettere di Pasquale de’ Paoli

In the Italian peninsula, the (re)discovery of the figure of Pasquale Paoli in the first half of the 19th century is part of the attempt made at this historical juncture to build a national civil literature that would support the Risorgimento movement. A decisive contribution to this effort was made by the exiles who went to Corsica: in particular, Antonio Benci, Niccolò Tommaseo and Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, authors of works that, to varying degrees, helped shape an emblematic - and functional to the convulsive Italian political dynamics - profile of the Corsican General. However, the profile of Paoli that emerges in the works of these authors was far from homogeneous, and this dissimilarity can be better understood if these works are put in relation to the historical period during which they were conceived or published: after the liberal uprisings of 1830-31 (Antonio Benci), on the eve of the First War of Independence (Niccolò Tommaseo), after the failure of the war of 1848-49 and on the eve of the Second War of Independence (Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi).