Towards a Unified Italy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Introduction: The Southern Question

   • Salvatore DiMaria

   Pages 1-27

3. In Defense of Garibaldi

   • Salvatore DiMaria

   Pages 29-54

4. Brigands: Criminals or Patriots?

   • Salvatore DiMaria

   Pages 55-84

5. The Underdeveloped South

   • Salvatore DiMaria

   Pages 85-109

6. Emigration

   • Salvatore DiMaria

   Pages 111-138

7. Italy’s Scourge: The Four Mafias

   • Salvatore DiMaria

   Pages 139-171

8. A Failed Reconstruction

   • Salvatore DiMaria

   Pages 173-199

9. Toward Making the Italians

   • Salvatore DiMaria

   Pages 201-227

10. Back Matter

    Pages 229-263

    PDF

Since unification in 1860, Italy has remained bitterly divided between the rich North and the underdeveloped South. This book examines the historical, literary, and cultural contexts that have informed and inflamed the debate on the Southern Question for over a century. It brings together analysis of cinema, literature, and newspaper archives to reconsider the myths and stereotypes that both Northerners and Southerners deploy in their narratives. Salvatore DiMaria offers a masterful assessment of the entangled issues that have produced the South’s image as impoverished and backwards, such as organized crime, illiteracy, and mass emigration. Documenting the state’s largely failed efforts to bring the South into its socio-economic fold, DiMaria also points to the future, arguing that the European Union and globalization are transformative forces that may finally produce a unified Italy.

• the Southern Question
• Divided Italy
• Italian Unification
• History of the Mafia
• reconstruction in Italy
• criminal corruption in Italy
• Garibaldi
• Mezzogiorno
• Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
• Piedmont
• Illiteracy in Italy
• the Bourbon regime
• the new Kingdom of Italy
• Emigration in Italy
• socioeconomic development of southern Italy
• Italian mafia

“This book brings deep scholarship and insight to bear upon the Southern Question as no previous work has done before. A groundbreaking study that moves between North and South and between culture, history, cinema, and politics to address complex cultural issues such as criminality, emigration, and illiteracy.” (Michael Lettieri, Professor of Italian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada)

“A much-needed reassessment of the long-held myth that Italy is an irredeemably divided nation. In deft, captivating prose, Salvatore DiMaria offers insights into a number of key issues in post-unified Italy and its political economy.” (Eugenia Paulicelli, Professor of Italian Studies and Comparative Literature, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA)

• University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

  Salvatore DiMaria

Salvatore DiMaria is Professor of Italian at the University of Tennessee, USA.

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