Art, politics and identity in de Staël’s Corinne ou l’Itali

The aim of this paper is to analyze Anne Louise Germaine de Staël’s novel Corinne ou l’Italie (1807) from the point of view of the cultural studies and the visual stud ies, to shed a light on de Staël’s attempt at promoting the construction of a modern Italian national identity, founded on the arts. The article examines how de Staël’s participation in the Italian nation-building was half linked to her prejudices upon the Italian lateness in the process of civilization Northern European countries were undergoing, and half focused on creating a transnational, cross-boundary and Euro pean artistic language.