Bodies on the Border: Sports Stories and Memories of Istrian and Dalmatian Exiles Narratives and Social Reality

This contribution intends to investigate an issue that, from a sociological point of view, still appears incomplete. It is about the exile of Italians from Istria and Dalmatia (after the Second World War until the 1970s), their identity construction between history and memory, and their redemption through sport. The relationship between identity and memory is reinterpreted through the lens of sport, which has long been recognized as a “total social fact” (in terms of M. Mauss, 1950). It is a privileged point of view for interpreting, through sociological categories, the single and plural identities of Dalmatian and Istrian exiles, whose events still constitute a collective memory "enigma". The connection between sport, memory, and territory, with particular reference to Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Italy), becomes a "border identity narrative", where the ways of feeling and defending one's identity from exile also emerge through the positive value of sporty life. Therefore, with a careful look at the body and sports performance, we want to deepen the narrative of migrants and sporting border identity - the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus - to provide an additional level of observation and analysis of memory, beyond the story or words.