Overview

"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 20th 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 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. This 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 18th and late 19th centuries. Moe examines a 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 investigation into the origins of the modern vision of the Me"

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9780520226524

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Nelson Moe is Associate Professor of Italian at Barnard College, Columbia University.

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