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The rise of identity politics is challenging European constitutionalism that, after the failed effort to create a demos under a Con- stitution, focused on the protection of human rights. When the demands for identity recognition cannot find spaces to be voiced, they may lead to forms of new populism/nationalism. Against such backdrop, how can constitutionalism help to manage this tension?

L'esperimento costituzionale americano è fondato sul seguente paradosso: costruire un sistema capace allo stesso tempo di permettere la pacifica coesistenza tra diversi cittadini, lasciando questi ultimi liberi di scegliere il proprio modo di perseguire la felicità. Originariamente, il costituzionalismo americano ha tentato di risolvere tale paradosso costruendo un sistema di regole capace di incanalare e ricomporre le differenti visioni presenti nella società in una duplice garanzia fondata sulla divisione orizzontale e verticale del potere. Ma l'avvento delle identity politics e la polarizzazione politica tipica dell'epoca post-moderna hanno messo in crisi la tenuta di tale architettura costituzionale, lacerando il tessuto politico-sociale e l'accordo costituzionale che da esso deriva. Il presente articolo affronta tali sfide, indagando le cause storiche e i problemi odierni della attuale crisi costituzionale. ; The American constitutional experiment is based on the following paradox: to build a legal system that allows for peaceful coexistence among all citizens by maintaining, at the same time, the freedom to choose different ways of pursuing happiness. Originally, the main goal of American constitutionalism was to safeguard political disagreement through the vertical and horizontal separation of powers. The rise of the identity politics is challenging this constitutional framework and the polarization of the political system is threating the US democracy and the constitutional agreements that come from it. The present paper aims to address these challenges analyzing the historical origins and the current issues of this constitutional crisis.

Per questo numero di Formazione & Insegnamento è stato scelto di approfondire i temi Identità, Generatività e Trasformazioni Sociali, perché essi corrispondono ad altrettanti campi in cui l'educativo e il sociale sono sollecitati a costruire società solidali, innovative e sicure (Horizon, 2020). I contributi degli Autori presenti in questo numero hanno colto da varie prospettive le sfide sottese. Le società democratiche contemporanee sono minacciate non tanto (e non solo) da fenomeni eclatanti ed eccezionali, quanto dalla coscienza ordinaria e convenzionale, che si piega a una comprensione meccanica degli eventi e soffoca l'autenticità dell'interazione democratica. Per affrontare negli spazi educativi tali prospettive serve instillare abitudini di consapevolezza critica che consentano di far emergere riflessioni focali sulla natura dell'identità che vogliamo auto-costituire, non semplice espressione del pensiero uniforme.

Sky Lee is one of ethnic writers who dare to challenge the long-run silence of marginalized group, by the means of writing in English about historical experience of her community. Her book, Disappearing Moon Café which was published in Vancouver in 1990, immediately caught the public attention and won the City of Vancouver Book Award while being nominated the Governor General's Literary Award. Lee, as a female writer, cares very much about females' struggle for identity from one generation to the next. With the influence of postcolonialism and women's movements, identity became more and more concerned by the minority groups. Postcolonialists hold that women from the Third World countries are under the dual oppressions. On the one hand, they are subjected to racial and cultural discrimination under Euro-American dominated society; on the other hand, they suffer from gender prejudice in both white hegemony and patriarchal doctrines. For more than one century of racial discrimination and segregation, Chinese Canadians have been on the brink of mainstream society. Whereas the females have a crueler condition as they are the victims of being marginalized from racism and gender prejudice simultaneously. In Disappearing Moon Cafe, all female characters have suffered self-loss to some extent. Therefore, how to construct its own identity becomes an urgent problem that needs to be solved. This thesis will introduce the living conditions of Chinese Canadian women and the identity crisis they encounter by the means of rereading the novel Disappearing Moon Cafe. Based on the theories of postcolonialism, feminism and other identity theories, this thesis will conduct a multi-dimensional study on the self-identification of Chinese Canadian women through the in-depth analysis and study of the novel Disappearing Moon Cafe. Mainly divided into two parts, it focuses on how Chinese Canadian women form their own identities in terms of cultural and gender perspectives. First of all, being aware of the conditions they are in, Chinese Canadians have to trace back to their origin and gain power from their own profound traditional culture while challenging and resisting the cultural hegemony in Canadian society. They should rediscover the silent history of its own ethnic culture and aware the great contribution the ancestors made to the development of Canada. Canadian born ethnic Chinese are easy to get confused for self-identity as they are not accepted by white race on account of physical appearance while being considered as not pure Chinese at the same time. Thus, they have to find a comfort in the marginalized state and establish the unique hybrid culture. Secondly, the prejudice toward females demands for a solution. This thesis summarizes three necessary approaches for the establishment of female identity by analyzing the image of women in Disappearing Moon Café: gaining for political, vocational and educative rights while awakening of female consciousness as well as breaking silence through female discourse. Nowadays, equality between races and sexuality is becoming increasingly important. While marginalized groups are receiving more attention in literature field, it is of great historical and practical significance to study the Chinese Canadian women's experiences in the mainstream culture of Canada while to explore their identity formation in both cultural and sexual perspective.