(due after 4 hours) write a reaction essay according the ppt. about Italy culture
Chapter 7:
The Two Italies &
The Southern Question
The Southern Question: What is it?
The Southern Question refers to the social and economic disparities (duality) that exist between the Northern and Southern regions of Italy.
These differences, as well as their causes, have been the subject of research from a number of disciplines: anthropology, sociology, politics and economics.
The debate between and among scholars and politicians on the issue has concentrated on the presumed existence of a North-South divide and a contrast –
between an advanced industrial well-governed and civic-oriented society in the North,
and a backward, agrarian, clientelistic and corrupt society in the South.
Another name for the South: Mezzogiorno
The Mezzogiorno generally includes the five southern regions of the peninsula (Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, Campania and Molise), as well as the surrounding islands (Sicily & Sardegna)
The History Factor – why a North/South divide?
Both North and South have experienced history in different ways
Aside from historical factors that make the South and the North different, there are social, economic and cultural ones as well.
If southern Italy were an independent state, it would be the poorest of the EU’s members; Northern Italy by contrast, would be the richest.
Why is this the case?
Southern Italy was virtually a part of Greece for hundreds of years before the Roman conquest. For this reason, Southern Italy was called Magna Graecia (Latin for ‘Greater Greece’) many Greek legends are set in Southern Italy.
Some of the most remarkable remains of Greek temples in the Mediterranean are found in southern Italy (such as Paestum, which is near Palermo, as well as at Syracuse and Agrigento in Sicily).
Many great thinkers from this time period: Pythagoras, Herodotus, Euripides, Plato all visited the Mezzogiorno
Then came…
raids and invasions by Germanic tribes,
centuries of domination by Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, French, Spanish…
In ancient times, the South was actually the most prosperous part of Italy. Under Roman rule, it was an area of enormous farming estates (latifundia) where a slave population worked the soil, enabling absentee landlords to live it up in Rome.
Remember, the south was maintained by feudalism, which, in some areas, lasted until the 19th century.
During the domination of the Normans the first Italian literary school, La Scuola Siciliana (The Sicilian School), started to produce literature with national character (~1220-50). The Scuola preceded the well-recognized Tuscan school Il Dolce Stil Novo (The Sweet New Style), by about half a century.
The South’s high level of culture
La Scuola Siciliana & Giacomo da Lentini
Acclaimed as a ‘master’ of poets (Dante memorializes him in his Purgatorio)
Da Lentini is credited with the invention of the sonnet
Main themes include: (courtly) love, noblemindedness
The canzone was another literary form which sprung from La Scuola Siciliana; as we well know, the canzone became standard form for Italian poets for centuries. Thus the importance of the poetic influence of the Scuola on subsequent literary works cannot be emphasized enough.
Giacomo da Lentini, “Io m’aggio posto in core a Dio servire”
Io m’aggio posto in core a Dio servire,
com’io potesse gire in paradiso,
al santo loco ch’aggio audito dire,
u’ si manten sollazzo, gioco e riso.
Sanza mia donna non vi voria gire,
quella c’ha blonda testa e claro viso,
ché sanza lei non poteria gaudere,
estando da la mia donna diviso.
Ma non lo dico a tale intendimento,
perch’io peccato ci volesse fare;
se non veder lo suo bel portamento
e lo bel viso e ’l morbido sguardare:
ché lo mi teria in gran consolamento,
veggendo la mia donna in ghiora stare.
I have proposed in my heart to serve God,
that I might go to paradise,
to the holy place of which I have heard said
that there are maintained pleasure, play, and laughter.
Without my lady I do not wish to go,
the one who has a blond head and a clear face, since without her I could not take pleasure,
being from my lady divided.
But I do not say this with such an intention,
that I would want to commit a sin;
but rather because I would want to see her beautiful comportment
and her beautiful face and her sweet glance:
for it would keep me in great consolation,
to see my lady be in glory.
(Trans. Teodolinda Barolini, “Dante and the lyric past,” The Cambridge Companion to Dante)
Naples – see profile on p. 188-9
Largest city in southern Italy, capital of the Campania region
Population of about 1 million people
Size and history of city make it the ‘unofficial’ capital of the South
Neapolitan – Romance language that has been a trademark of southern Italy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7KzkQ89pI8
Naples’ role in music, theater, and food (birthplace of Pizza Margherita, pastries, lemons, coffee)
Naples & Music: O Sole Mio (lyrics by Giovanni Capurro, music by Eduardo di Capua, 1898)
Neapolitan Lyrics
Che bella cosa è na jurnata ’e sole,
n’aria serena doppo na tempesta!
Pe’ ll’aria fresca pare già na festa...
Che bella cosa na jurnata ’e sole.
Chorus:
Ma n’atu sole cchiù bello, oi ne’,
’o sole mio sta nfronte a te!
’o sole, ’o sole mio, sta nfronte a te,
sta nfronte a te!
Translated Lyrics
What a beautiful thing is a sunny day!
The air is serene after a storm,
The air is so fresh that it feels like a celebration.
What a beautiful thing is a sunny day!
Chorus:
But another sun that's brighter still,
It's my sun, and it’s right in front of you!
The sun, my sun, it's in front of you!
It's right in front of you!
Sung by Enrico Caruso: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1QJwHWvgP8&list=PLVfncPTeRrh7Ishfj99-JZ_dSYaSXVxus
Naples & Music: Core ‘ngrato (lyrics by Riccardo Cordiferro, music by Salvatore Cardillo, 1911)
Neapolitan Lyrics
Catari, Catari, pecche me dice sti parole amare, pecche me parle e 'o core me turmiente, Catari? Nun te scurda ca t'aggio date 'o core, Catari, nun te scurda!
Catari, Catari, che vene a dicere stu parla ca me da spaseme? Tu nun'nce pienze a stu dulore mio, tu nun'nce pienze, tu nun te ne cure.
Core, core 'ngrato, t'aie pigliato 'a vita mia, tutt'e` passato e nun'nce pienze chiu!
Translated Lyrics
Caterina, Caterina, why do you say these bitter words to me?
Why do you tell me these words that torment my heart, Caterina? Don't forget that I gave you my heart, Caterina, don't you forget!
Caterina, Caterina, why do you say these words that make me so angry? You don't think about my pain, you don't think about it, you don't care.
Ungrateful heart, you have stolen my life away, It’s all over and you don't think about us any more!
Luciano Pavarotti Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDVOij9nB1A
Before the Risorgimento, Italy was divided into several states:
South governed by Spain: Kingdom of two Sicilies
North was under Austrians
Central area was under the pope: Papal State
Naples was the cultural center of the Kingdom of two Sicilies, as well as the capital.
Back to the South’s history…
When Italy was unified in 1861, the Southern Question emerged.
The revolution (Risorgimento) was not carried out by the masses; rather, it was united by a military campaign that was carried out mostly by the North.
Important Risorgimento figures, like Garibaldi, King Victor Emmanuel, Mazzini, etc. were all from the North. Remember, Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the ‘brain’ / ‘diplomatic architect’ behind the unification, was not interested in liberating the South or making it a part of Italy.
Southern history (continued)
Following the Risorgimento, southerners felt that they were being deprived the same rights and opportunities as the northerners – new institutions, laws, and economic policies were not only alien to customs of the south, but they were also contrary to the south’s interests (i.e. extreme taxes on agriculture)
The shift of industrialization of the north perpetuated and deepened the division.
Francesco Saverio Nitti: a southern intellectual who theorized that Italian unification took place at the South’s expense by squandering its immense financial resources therefore, the south was unable to develop independently
-he wanted the state to intervene with an industrial policy in order to compensate for the imbalance that had been created nothing happened
Economic conditions were so harsh that from 1864 through World War I, approximately 5 million people – or half of the southern population - emigrated.
Since most taxation was on agriculture, the South had to carry most of the country’s tax burden, which led Southerners to rebel.
From 1863-4, the government had to intervene to stop ‘brigandage.’
Most of the Southerners were not criminals, but their actions represented severe economic struggles.
There were many popular uprisings during this time, which led the state to respond with the army.
*More people died during these clashes than in the three Wars of Independence!
The South as the “Other”
Some common stereotypes of the South economically backward, delinquent, all members of organized crime, all politically corrupt….
All of these views – of the South as a ‘problem’ – have roots in views that were first articulated at the birth of the nation.
The general perception of the Mezzogiorno was of a foreign and barbaric land that the young nation should strive not to imitate. Aside from images of the Mafia, there were also those of brigandage, indolence, illiteracy, superstition, cannibalism, corruption, dirt and disease…. Coupled with pastoral beauty and tranquility.
John Dickie and “Otherness”
During the post-Unification period, the Mezzogiorno was seen as a barbaric, violent and irrational place
Dickie claims that the south was transformed into an “Other” against which the new Italian state and society sought to define itself.
Thus, Dickie argues that the Piedmontese (ruling class of the north) were able to mold a negative image of the south in order to consolidate its authority without bringing about any social change.
North = law & order
South = chaos
Fascism and the Southern Question
Regime did not take important initiatives for economic development of south
Also contributed to remodeling the image of the south on old stereotypes
Under fascism, the south was regarded as a “no man’s land” - Mussolini exiled many ‘dangerous’ individuals to the south
Whereas in the north the fascist regime played a modernizing role, in the south the message was populist and ruralist
Following WWII
The south was not considered an area that had to be industrialized after WWII; the new government planned to continue the same policy of prewar governments – keeping the south agricultural.
Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (1950-1962)
an agency established to help the economic development of the South by buying out large estates, partitioning the land & selling it to workers
for many, the redistribution amounted to no more than a small plot of poor soil insufficient
Initiatives throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s…. To today often do not propel the South to benefit – in fact, the economic gap sometimes seems to widen!
Edward Banfield & Amoral familism
Studied conditions in the South – spent nearly a year in a small village in Basilicata in 1955
Noticed that southerners were more self-centered and family-oriented; also noted the predominance of patriarchal society in the South, coupled with a lack of interests outside the family
Claimed that the backwardness of the south was explained by a ‘traditional’ ethos, which he called ‘amoral familism’ a form of behavior directed solely towards the good of the family; implies an endemic inability to act for the common good (lack of civic consciousness)
Revived the old argument that the divergence between North and South is rooted in the absence of a civic tradition in the South
i.e. lack of civic maturity in the south could be attributed to the fact that it’s an agrarian society (no need to associate with others)
A ‘90s Continuation of Banfield – Robert Putnam
Directly or indirectly, Banfield & Putnam have contributed to the perception that:
Southern Italians have a reactive rather than proactive approach to government and living conditions
Southern Italians have a pathological distrust of the state and authority
There is a direct link between civic community and economic development of the regions.
Family interests are more important than the common good (Mignone, 188)
We can conclude that Banfield’s study reinforces the North-South divide.
Impact of Banfield & Putnam
Could the roots of the Southern Question go back to the development of city-states?
Unlike the North, the South did not enjoy the experience of city-states
Fragmentation perhaps encouraged due to maintenance of feudalism in south in middle ages
Italian city-states in the north were able to assert their autonomy and evolve into vigorously independent urban centers
The Southern Question has not been solved, despite numerous initiatives and much dialogue about the issue.
The South does have some issues that do not involve stereotyping or anything of that nature, including:
Physical disadvantages of the south (i.e. distance from markets, unfavorable terrain, lack of natural resources)
Misguided government policies
Modern Discussions of the Southern Question
Released in 1992
Directed by Lina Wertmüller
Comedy film about an elementary school teacher Marco Sperelli (played by Paolo Villaggio) from northern Italy (Milan)
Due to a bureaucratic error, he is given a teaching assignment in the southern Italian town of Corzano, as opposed to Corsano, a suburb of Milan
Sperelli is met head-on with the North-South divide, and differences between the North & South
Wertmuller makes social commentary delicately, South portrayed as ‘charming’ and ‘quaint’ despite gritty subject matter