“A debatable land”. Representations of Naples on the British Stage

Abstract

The general purpose of this paper is to show how the description of the South of Italy as a border land identifies it as the “debatable land” contended by two communities with an imbalance of power, whose disputes over time create a ‘border culture’. From that concept, the specific purpose of this study emerges: to show how the dramatic representations of the Rebellion of Naples of 1647 under scrutiny portray the Southern territory as a land which acknowledges no law and seldom generates its own customary law. The beginning of what may be called ‘Masaniello’s literary history’ will be dealt with and include its development in the Romantic age.