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This chapter describes how the European luxury debate reached Italy. It also discusses how the debate was first assimilated in the context of enlightened Catholicism. It sketches the development of the unique Neapolitan discussion to clarify the establishment of political economy and the interplay between moral and economic languages in 18th-century Italy. It focuses on Antonio Genovesi and Ferdinando Galiani, but goes back to the beginning of the century and to Paolo Mattia Doria and Carlo Antonio Broggia to place their thought into its local intellectual context.

This book has suggested that the Neapolitan Formula (NF), with its fixed narrative conventions and stereotypical use of readily identifiable locations, was largely responsible for the creation of the idea of a ‘Neapolitan cinema’ within popular consciousness. It has also explored how in recent years Neapolitan films have drawn on this tradition but also challenged and reconfigured its conventions. In order to understand better the reasons behind this change, it is useful to review briefly the notion of genre and generic evolution. The book has argued that the NF depended on both a set of generic conventions, deriving from melodrama, and particular cultural beliefs, known as a ‘Neapolitan world view’, and that these two were inextricably linked. In addition, it has demonstrated how the New Neapolitan Cinema has undercut the traditional, positive images of Naples and napoletanità with a newfound pessimism. Moreover, it has touched on the concept of the ‘Southern Question’ (questione meridionale) and its relationship to the Neapolitan narrative tradition.

The crisis of the Bourbon monarchy came to a peak with the Republic of 1799, and the events the preceded and followed it. This chapter explores the impact of the French Revolution on Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, after Ferdinand IV of Naples joined the first coalition against France (1793) and then in November 1798 — under pressure from the queen, Maria Carolina of Austria, the British envoy Sir William Hamilton, Lady Emma Hamilton, and Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson — launched a disastrous military campaign against the French Republican forces in Rome. Following the collapse of the monarchy, the flight of the rulers to Sicily, and the invasion of the southern mainland, the chapter describes the declaration of the Neapolitan Republic in January 1799, the Republic's fraught relations with the Directory in Paris, and the establishment of the provincial Republics. It concludes with the Sanfedist counter-revolution led by Cardinal Ruffo, the fall of the Republic in June, and the bloody purges that followed the Bourbon Restoration.

Examining the long-held assumption that the Neapolitan Republic of 1799 differed fundamentally from the other Italian Republics of 1796-9, this chapter starts by illustrating how the term ‘passive revolution’ has subsequently come to misrepresent the events of 1799 in the South. In their political programmes and their social and cultural backgrounds, the Neapolitan Jacobins differed little from their Italian counter-parts. As in the other Italian Republics, the Neapolitan Jacobins and patriots were sharply aware of the need communicate their ideas more widely with the masses (by means of Republican ritual, the press, theatre, and public assemblies); the need to cultivate support from the clergy; and avoid offending religious beliefs or the clergy (many of whom supported the Republic), although they were also faced by the specific problems posed by the abolition of feudalism in the South. In remarkably difficulty circumstances, they nonetheless looked to implement the reform projects formulated in the previous decades.

This chapter explores the differentiation and marginalization of Magna Graecia within an emerging Hellenism increasingly focused on classical, mainland Greece, by looking at late eighteenth-century travel narratives and historiographies. Disappointment at the paucity of classical monuments in Magna Graecia, as expressed by Winckelmann's German pupil Riedesel, is shown to give way to later French and British travelers’ interest in the region's exotic and antique quality. Magna Graecia's central role in the origins of modern narratives of ancient Greece is examined alongside the region's marginalization, in these same narratives, as a mere site of ancient Greek colonization, overlooking its place as a center of Greek culture. A distinctly different take is revealed in the historical works of the Neapolitan Enlightenment, which sought to harmonize Magna Graecia's past with the Italic past, a trend that signals a growing divide between Italian and non-Italian approaches to Magna Graecia.

This chapter reinterprets the origins of modern classical archaeology by examining the founding of the first archaeological institute, the Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica. Understanding the Instituto within its Italian contexts reveals the importance to this process of Magna Graecia its material culture and its scholars and simultaneously explains Magna Graecia's subsequent marginalization. The work and life of the institute's founder, the German Eduard Gerhard, are shown to be indebted to Neapolitan cultural institutions and antiquarianism, the richness of which is evinced through the scholarship of Andrea de Jorio. Analysis of the debate on the provenance of painted vases within the Instituto's community illuminates the emerging predilection of the new archaeological discipline for mainland Greece rather than Magna Graecia. The provincialization of South Italian scholarship accompanying this process of archaeological professionalization is explored through the relationship of the Calabrese scholar Vito Capialbi with the new archaeology promoted by the Instituto.

Traditionally, Neapolitan cinema in Italy has been identified primarily with two genres: comedy and melodrama. Neapolitan comedy derives from a rich stage tradition and is exemplified by the work of playwright-actors like Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo and of comics originating in theatrical revues and cabaret like Totò and Massimo Troisi. Neapolitan melodrama typically structures its melodramatic narratives around the concept of napoletanità (‘Neapolitanness’). These films are known as being part of the ‘Neapolitan Formula’ (NF). This chapter concentrates on the post-war cycle (1946–1959), arguably the period in which the NF achieved its fullest expression. It begins by describing the principal sources of influence on the NF: Neapolitan song, the sceneggiata and melodrama. It then explores how the NF performed an almost ritualistic function for spectators in the popular quarters of Naples and other Southern Italian cities, generating audience participation by reflecting their ‘world-view’ and providing a cathartic release for pressures specific to Naples and the South through a deliberate use of napoletanità.

In the early 1990s, three Neapolitans made their directorial debut in quick succession. Antonio Capuano's Vito e gli altri (Vito and the Others, 1991), Mario Martone's Morte di un matematico napoletano (Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician, 1992), and Pappi Corsicato's Libera (1993). All three films were independently produced, were set in Naples and differed greatly in both subject matter and style from the Neapolitan films of previous decades. The proliferation of Neapolitan films since 1990 has meant that the idea of a ‘New Neapolitan Cinema’ has become an increasingly widely used concept in writings on Italian cinema. This book explores whether or not a ‘new Neapolitan cinema’ exists in Italy. It addresses the following questions: Is there a local film industry in Naples? Do the Neapolitan films produced in recent years have thematic and stylistic commonalities? Are these films distinct from traditional Neapolitan cinema? The principle subject of this book is the construction of a ‘Neapolitan cinema’ and the ways in which the characteristics of this construction have changed since 1990.

This chapter examines the experiences of Margaret Fuller in Italy during the period from 1849 to 1850. In July 1849, Fuller expressed in a letter to her brother that all her private hopes had fallen with the hopes of Italy. Being part of the revolution, Fuller was being hunted by the French and had to go into hiding. After months of enjoying the simple aspects of a limited life, Fuller and Giovanni Angelo Ossoli confronted a dangerous situation when Ossoli accidentally crossed into Neapolitan territory and was arrested. After Ossoli’s release, the couple decided to leave Italy and move to the U.S.

Estranei alla massa (literally ‘outside the crowd’ or ‘beyond the masses’) is the title of an interesting documentary directed by Vincenzo Marra in 2001, which depicts the everyday lives of seven members of the eponymous football supporters' club. The documentary and its title are emblematic of the way in which the New Neapolitan Cinema (NNC) has called into question the sense of social cohesion and communal belonging that underpinned the Neapolitan Formula (NF). This chapter examines how the discourse of napoletanità and the functions it served in the NF are undermined by the NNC through narratives emphasising social exclusion and existential alienation. It discusses the way a number of films have questioned the traditional image of the Gemeinschaft family and critiqued its patriarchal conception. Both of these themes converge in the archetypal figure of the scugnizzo to which the NNC has repeatedly returned. The chapter concludes by considering the possible responses to this crisis in napoletanità that the NNC pessimistically proposes: migration or extinction.

Antonio Capuano's Polvere di Napoli (The Dust of Naples, 1998) explicitly invites interpretation in relation to one of the key representations of Naples — Giuseppe Marotta's collection of stories, L'oro di Napoli/The Gold of Naples and Vittorio De Sica's 1954 film adaptation of the same name. Indeed, the opening caption deliberately enters into dialogue with De Sica's uncritical celebration of napoletanità. This chapter discusses hybridity, postmodernism and the legacy of the Neapolitan narrative. It addresses the legacy of traditional Neapolitan culture by evoking the conventions of the sceneggiata and the Neapolitan Formula (NF), and by posing the question of what relevance such cultural forms could possibly have for a modern audience. Just as the former tendency was prefigured by Immacolata e Concetta, the latter is anticipated by a more or less contemporaneous film, the German-Italian coproduction Nel regno di Napoli/Neapolitanische Geschichten/The Kingdom of Naples (1979, Werner Schroeter).

Following the crisis of Italy's party system precipitated by the tangentopoli scandals of the late 1980s, proposals were made for electoral reforms to move away from a party system based on proportional representation towards a majoritarian, presidential system. In Naples, the 1993 elections saw Antonio Bassolino of the left-wing Partito Democratico della Sinistra emerge victorious to embark on a series of reforms. Bassolino's impact on the city was seen as nothing short of miraculous and the idea of a sudden and unexpected ‘Neapolitan renaissance’ rapidly took hold. The seven-year period of Bassolino's governance roughly coincides with the rise of the New Neapolitan Cinema (NNC), inviting the question as to the relationship between these two phenomena. Indeed, the NNC has often been seen as an expression of this wider Neapolitan renaissance, despite the fact that it slightly predates Bassolino's election. Murray Edelman's notion of ‘symbolic politics’ has been evoked by a number of commentators in relation to Bassolino's policies. A central part of Bassolino's symbolic politics was the way in which urban space was articulated.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of this book's inquiry into the intellectual accomplishments of Giambattista Vico (1668—1744), the famed professor of Rhetoric at the University of Naples. His magnum opus, the Scienza nuova (3rd ed., 1744), has been hailed by many contemporary scholars as the precursor of modern social theory and its disciplinary affiliations. In particular, the chapter identifies the oft-neglected aspects of Vico's social theory as exemplified in his ideals of a metropolis. The second half of the chapter elaborates on the particular subject of Vico's investigations—Naples—and the questions of society and citizenship brought about by its urbanization and expansion during the early eighteenth century.

This chapter examines the politics of Conservative foreign policy after the Conservative government had survived for nine months in November 1858. It also discusses the fact that Britain was apparently vulnerable to attack, even invasion, and created widespread concern throughout 1858 and 1859. Further, it highlights Disraeli's desire to maintain Anglo-French relations as the cornerstone of British foreign policy and to use it as an electoral and political weapon. The study explains how Derby and Malmesbury in London and Cowley in Paris restored the relations with France after patient negotiations. But the major concern for the Conservative government was not France but the Neapolitan government. It concludes that the various minor differences of 1852–58 were a prelude to the more significant differences that emerged in 1859.

Films are not merely works of art or cultural artefacts, but commercial commodities produced within an industrial system ruled by government legislation, financial constraints and market forces. Before analysing Neapolitan films in stylistic or thematic terms, it is necessary to examine their place within Italy's film industry. This chapter contextualises the New Neapolitan Cinema within the broader history of Neapolitan film production and examines some of the factors that have favoured filmmaking at the regional level. It also explores the mode of production employed by Neapolitan films in the 1990s and the role played by government intervention and legislation. In addition, it looks at how Neapolitan films have been distributed and exhibited, paying particular attention to any regional disparities. In this way, this chapter seeks to determine whether or not it is legitimate to talk about a ‘Neapolitan cinema’. Such a concept presupposes the existence of both a distinct film ‘industry’ in the region and/or a body of films aimed exclusively or primarily at Neapolitan audiences.