Abstract

This short note reviews three books edited by Mario Isnenghi which deal with the subject of the "lieux des mémoires" as defined by Pierre Nora in the famous collection he edited some years ago. The author stresses how this Italian approach to the topic relates mainly to a "literary" understanding and is less interested in building up a scientific notion of what is a "place of memory". The author recognises the interest and the "charm" of most of the essays, but wonders if they really represent the entire panorama of what could be called "historical memory" in modern Italy. Surely they confer prominence to a politically left-oriented memory, assuming that this has entered a sort of crisis due to events of the Nineties; but this is another matter of discussion.