Naples and the Nation: Image, Media and Culture in the Second Republic

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This project explores contemporary cultural representations of Naples, a city often marginalised in discussion of Italian 'national' culture but central to state-of-the-nation discourses. It interrogates how cultural products addressing Naples represent the city and its relationship with Italy, and asks what the view from Naples reveals about the nation-state, its workings and its discourses. It further explores the wider implications of the shifting balance of power between cities and nation-states in recent decades, in light of weakening state power and the growing freedom of cities to build, brand and promote themselves independent of the nation-state (Clark and Moonen, 2016).The introduction of direct mayoral election in Italy coincided with the reformulation of the state as the 'Second Republic' to create a 'Republic of Cities' (Bassolino, 1996). The prominence of Naples in this period makes it a privileged site for the study of the contemporary relationship between city and nation. Hailed as a beacon of urban citizenship and good governance during the 'Neapolitan Renaissance' (c.1993-2001), the city subsequently descended into extreme dysfunction, as organised crime wars and an urban waste crisis made headlines worldwide. The radical oscillation in the city's fortunes spawned an extraordinarily rich corpus of cultural production. While individual examples - Elena Ferrante's 'Neapolitan Novels' (2011-14), Roberto Saviano's Gomorra (2006) and its screen adaptations (2009; 2014; 2016; 2017) - have enjoyed enormous success and detailed critical analysis, the wider field of media and cultural representations remains largely unexplored. My research maps that wider field and highlights the role played by cultural production in shaping understandings of the relationship between Naples and the Italian nation-state. It interrogates how national identities and discourses play out in the context of Naples - how they are negotiated, refracted, challenged or made concrete in the microcosmic context of the city and its representation. I counter a tendency in existing criticism to reinforce conventional perceptions of Naples as an exceptional urban and cultural reality, unrelated to or deviating from a national norm. I highlight instead how cultural products attest to continuities between Naples and the Italian nation-state and critique national discourse and practice. In uniting analysis of cultural products and news media constructions of the city, my book will furnish a more comprehensive account of cultural engagement with Naples than has been offered to date; it will also deliver a model for an integrated cultural studies approach to the study of city and nation in other contexts.The project is underpinned by a multidisciplinary cultural studies approach. It unites close analysis of texts (news reports, literary works, film and TV series) with exploration of the wider history of cultural discourses pertaining to Naples and its relationship with Italy. It is underpinned by postcolonial theory as applied to the Italian south (Cassano 1996; 2010; Chambers 2007); it provincializes the 'northern view' of the city and repositions it at the centre of discussion about the nation-state and its effects. It thus exemplifies the relevance of applying postcolonial critique to appropriate Western contexts.The fellowship will enhance my standing as a leader in modern Italian cultural studies. It will allow me to lead and manage an important and timely study that will reframe our understanding of Naples, its cultural representation and its relationship with Italy. It will enable me, through the organisation of an international conference and the creation of a scholarly network, to effect a wider reconceptualisation of the contemporary relationship between city and nation. I will engage with interested publics throughout and collaborate with teachers of Italian to produce teaching materials for the new A-Level syllabus.