Understanding The Southern Identity

This course examines “L’ identita' meridionale” (Southern Identity) and the Southern Question from the Neapolitan Revolution and short lived Republic to the present, investigating the interrelations among cultural representation, geography, and power. The study will focuses on four novels and on ten films that produced major representations and theorizations of the Southern Identity in different cultural forms.

Fictional works: Giovanni Verga, Leonardo Sciascia, Luigi Pirandello, Elio Vittorini- the theoretical writings of Antonio Gramsci; and films of Luchino Visconti, Giuseppe De Santis, R. Rossellini, P. Germi, F. Rosi, P. P. Pasolini, Antonio Capuano, Pappi Corsicato, Florestano Vancini, Marco Risi, Amelio, Calopresti, will be studied