Darkest Italy
Subtitle: the nation and stereotypes of the Mezzogiorno, 1860-1900
By: John Dickie.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 209
Subjects: Public opinion -- Italy, Northern; Stereotype (Psychology) -- Italy; Italy, Southern -- Civilization -- Public opinion; Italy, Southern -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Public opinion; Italy, Southern -- Politics and government -- 1861-1922 -- Public opinion; Italy -- Politics and government -- 1870-1914
Description: "Stereotypical representations of the Mezzogiorno are a persistent feature of Italian culture on all levels. In Darkest Italy, John Dickie analyzes these stereotypes in the post-Unification period, when the Mezzogiorno was widely seen as barbaric, violent, and irrational, an "Africa" on the European continent. At the same time, this is the moment when the Mezzogiorno became a metaphor for the state of the country as a whole, the index of Italy's modernity.

Dickie argues that these stereotypes, rather than being a symptom of the failings of national identity in Italy, were actually integral to the way Italy's bourgeoisie imagined themselves as Italian. Drawing on recent theories of "Otherness" and national identity, Dickie brings a new light to a key and well-established facet of Italian history - the relationship between the South and the nation as a whole."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-202) and index.