The view from Vesuvius [[electronic resource] ] : Italian culture and the southern question / / Nelson Moe

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910454766303321
• Autore: Moe Nelson <1961->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkeley, Calif., : University of California Press, c2002
• ISBN: 0-520-93982-4; 1-59734-978-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (369 p.)
• Collana: Studies on the history of society and culture ; ; 46
• Disciplina: 945/.708
• Soggetti: Public opinion - Italy, Northern; Stereotypes (Social psychology) - Italy; Electronic books.; Italy, Southern Civilization Public opinion; Italy, Southern Social conditions 19th century Public opinion; Italy, Southern Politics and government 19th century Public opinion
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-335) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: How Did Southern Italy Become "the South"? -- I. Imagining the South. 1750-1850 -- II. Representing the South in the Risorgimento. 1825-1861 -- III. Representing the South in Postunification Italy. 1870-1885 -- Conclusion: What the South Enables Us to Say -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: The vexed relationship between the two parts of Italy, often referred to as the Southern Question, has shaped that nation's political, social, and cultural life throughout the twentieth century. But how did southern Italy become "the south," a place and people seen as different from and inferior to the rest of the nation? Writing at the rich juncture of literature, history, and cultural theory, Nelson Moe explores how Italy's Mezzogiorno became both backward and picturesque, an alternately troubling and fascinating borderland between Europe and its others. This finely crafted book shows that the Southern Question is far from just an Italian issue, for its origins are deeply connected to the formation of European cultural identity between the mid-eighteenth ; and late nineteenth centuries. Moe examines an exciting range of unfamiliar texts and visual representations including travel writing, political discourse, literary texts, and etchings to illuminate the imaginative geography that shaped the divide between north and south. His narrative moves from a broad examination of the representation of the south in European culture to close readings of the literary works of Leopardi and Giovanni Verga. This groundbreaking investigation into the origins of the modern vision of the Mezzogiorno is made all the more urgent by the emergence of separatism in Italy in the 1990's.