This thesis analyzes how two TED Talks construct an optimistic sense of national belonging in Italy. The first TED Talk is by Maurizio di Robilant, an Italian brand manager; the second is by Ioanna Merope Ippiotis, an Interpreter and Translator for the Italian newspaper La Stampa. Constitutive rhetoric, Burke’s comic frame, and Fisher’s narrative research inform my study. Moreover, five national narrative categories establish my analytical framework: Italy as the decaying nation, the beautiful nation, the state-lacking nation, the powerful nation, and the ethnic nation. I will study what new categories, subcategories or intersection of categories the TED Talks produce in relation to the framework. I conclude that the two TED Talks provide an optimistic narration of the Italian national character. Both speakers begin by acknowledging the difficulties of Italy; their narratives evolve to underscore the positive attributes and the potential of Italy as a country, thus rhetorically reversing the negative Zeitgeist of the time in which the speakers delivered their talks.