Delirious Naples : A Cultural History of the City of the Sun

This book is addressed to "lovers of paradoxes" and we have done our utmost to assemble a stellar cast of Neapolitan and American scholars, intellectuals, and artists/writers who are strong and open-minded enough to wrestle with and illuminate the paradoxes through which Naples presents itself. Naples is a mysterious metropolis. Difficult to understand, it is an enigma to outsiders, and also to the Neapolitans themselves. Its very impenetrableness is what makes it so deliriously and irresistibly attractive. The essays attempt to give some hints to the answer of the enigma, without parsing it into neat scholastic formulas. In doing this, the book will be an important means of opening Naples to students, scholars and members of the community at large who are engaged in "identity-work." A primary goal has been to establish a dialogue with leading Neapolitan intellectuals and artists, and, ultimately, ensure that the “deliriously Neapolitan” dance continues. -- Provided by publisher Cover Delirious Naples Title Copyright CONTENTS Foreword. Returning to The Broken Fountain: Omaggio a Thomas Belmonte Preface. The Irresolvable Paradox: Essaying Naples Introduction: Naples as Chaosmos or, The City That Makes You Repeat Its Discourse Learning from Contemporary Naples/Writing as a Neapolitan 1. Napòlide: A Man without Naples 2. Scuorno (Vergogna) The View from America 3. Naples/New York: Across the Watery Divide 4. Auratic Detritus/Sublime Trash: “Rough Magic”; or, The Art of Transfiguration in B. Amore’s Naples/ New York Installation 5. One Early Twenty-First Century Summer in Naples 6. Investigating Gilda Mignonette as a “Newpolitan” Approach to Popular Culture 7. Go Make Naples: New Perspectives from Italian American Artists 8. You Want to Be Americano? History, Memory, and Mercy 9. Words in Journey: Echoes from Pompeii 10. One of These Days 11. Mediterranean Crossroads: Naples as a Model of Southcentric Cosmopolitanism 12. The Delirium of the Neapolitan Baroque 13. The Sansevero Chapel: A Case Study of the Neapolitan Enlightenment 14. Caravaggio’s Mercy in Naples Malanapoli: From the Lazaronitum to Gomorrah/Camorra 15. The Contact Zone: Where Organized Crime and Everyday Life Meet 16. Gomorrah: The Rest of the Story Writing and Singing Naples 17. Anna Maria Ortese: Breaking the Spell of Naples? 18. Filumena Marturano: Eduardo De Filippo’s Beloved Whore 19. Matilde Serao’s Art of Numbers: Naples and the Game of Lotto 20. Opera and the Classical Tradition in Naples 21. Poetry 22. Evoking Naples in a Story and a Story about Stories Omaggi, or Parole d’Ammore 23. Tributes to Shirley Hazzard 24. A Tribute to John Turturro’s Passione 25. A Celluloid Tribute to Thomas Belmonte Acknowledgments List of Contributors Pellegrino D'acierno And Stanislao G. Pugliese, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References.