If the present pandemic has shown anything, it is that nations matter. Yes, it seems quite obvious. But in a world traversed by incessant flows of information, goods, capital and, to a lesser extent, people, the fate of the nation has recurrently been depicted as doomed: an obsolescent socio-spatial register, out of tune with increasingly transnational and cosmopolitan societies. And yet, it only took a sub-microscopic pathogen to confirm that, when a crisis strikes, it is the national framework that becomes crucial in offering a sense of security to disoriented masses.
In what follows, I would like to use the case of Italy (the country of my nationality) and the United Kingdom (my country of residence) to reflect on what we can learn about the nation facing the present global pandemic. I am not interested here in governmental responses which have securitised the health threat in terms of a threat to national security (despite the virus being a global threat). Neither am I interested in the militaristic language deployed by many national governments and mass media to respond to this threat, which equally reinforces national borders as the principal lines of defence against the virus. My interest instead is in the emotional responses of the general public facing the pandemic and the extent to which these responses have contributed to reproduce a sense of nationhood.
When Italy became the first European country to experience the highest levels of coronavirus contagion and related deaths, my cousin forwarded me a video which was circulating on social media. Produced and aired by a popular Italian radio (Radio 105), the video narrates the stories of ordinary and famous Italians who directed their courage and inventiveness towards helping the nation fight the virus. The message of the video, like others which can be found on the web, is imbued with feelings of national pride and solidarity.
