Stereotypical representations of the Mezzogiorno are a persistent feature of Italian culture at all levels. In "Darkest Italy", John Dickie analyzes these stereotypes in the post Unification period, when the Mezzogiornio was widely seen as barbaric, violent or 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 an area of Italian history - the relationship between the South and the nation as a whole.
- ISBN10 661136661X
- ISBN13 9786611366612
- Publish Date 20 August 1999 (first published 1 January 1999)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 4 September 2012
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Palgrave MacMillan
- Format eBook
- Language English