Italy/America: the Use of Cultural Heritage

This study intends to reflect on the historical meaning and the function cultural heritage assumes today in society and, in particular, how it is "used" in Italian and American country-system. We consider cultural heritage to be the core issue to boost national identity and culture against homogenization generated by globalisation. In the process of increasing mediatisation, the new exploitation of cultural heritage becomes 'glocal', overcoming any possible dichotomy. How would you therefore collocate cultural heritage in the two diverse cultures that are object of study? We explore cultural heritage as a narrative space introducing itself as a new territorial form of social acting and conflicts, issues particularly precious to De Certeau. For what concerns tourism, the mark 'Italy' is far ahead in the world of art and history. Italian institutions, though, still seem to doubt about the actual potential of the extraordinary cultural patrimony Italy possesses. America is less fortunate in this field and often has to use Greek and Roman art to adorn its musea: the eccentric museum of Paul Getty in Malibu (California), an architectonic copy of the Villa dei Papiri of Ercolano, includes the most important collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquity. While the major American musea are actually quoted on the stock exchange. Would it be possible to extend the American model to Italy