Italian National Unification and the Mezzogiorno: Colonialism in One Country?

Abstract

When writing about the historical relationship between the Italian South, or Mezzogiorno, and the Italian nation, the concept of ‘colonialism in one country’ — to paraphrase the title of a famous book edited by Jane Schneider, Italy’s ‘Southern Question’: Orientalism in One Country (1998)¹ & may be a useful category for the analysis of both historical and contemporary perceptions and interpretations. Adapting Edward Said’s idea of ‘Orientalism’ as the perceived stereotype of an indolent East opposed to a rational West, Schneider has looked at the perceived difference between the Italian North and South in a similar way, as a historically constructed stereotype that has justified specific attitudes and policies. It is important to notice, however, as John Dickie has pointed out in his critique of Schneider’s edited book, that Said’s ideas need to be transferred with caution to the Italian context, since in Italy ‘the South has not been subordinated to the North or to the state in a way one could even approximately describe as imperialistic’.² Yet, it is undeniable that, in Italy, the perceived difference between North and South has led to the creation of a comparable stereotype to the one at the heart of Said’s Orientalism — the so-called Southern Question or Southern Problem (Questione meridionale) — which John Davis and Piero Bevilacqua, among others, have analysed in some detail.³