De l’italianité aux Italiens de Tunisie : identité nationale et recherche historique

The present essay is focused on the Italians of Tunisia, who over several centuries constituted a trans-Mediterranean migrant community. However the essay does not deal with the history of these Italians, but discusses the historiographical approach which has inspired numerous studies on the Italians of Tunisia. The emphasis on the “Italian community” reveals that a nationalist paradigm is unintentionally at work. A “category of practice” has become a “category of analysis”, a category shift which has gone unquestioned. As a result, historical studies reinforced Italian identity and an alternative vision of the Tunisian nation based on the harmonious coexistence of several “communities”.