The Napoleonic conquest of the Kingdom of Naples abruptly juxtaposes two models of Europe, which correspond – in the opinion of contemporary observers – to different «times» and «temperatures» of civil history. The essay analyzes the documentation (preserved in some manuscript volumes of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) collected by the French during the conquest and repression of banditry (1806-1813), the indigenous phenomenon of more immediate reaction against the establishment of a new State. The reconstruction of the look on the conquered people and on its most reluctant fringes, relies on a crossing of perspectives, the one from the French military commands and the internal one handed over to the filter of the indigenous elites, who are entrusted with the responsibility of the territorial police and government. A monstrum emerges, as a result of the stereotype now consolidated in Italy and Europe but also as an involuntary and faithful reflection of an autochthonous cultural system, transversal to social orders, which profoundly characterizes the life of the peoples and territories of the rural provinces of the South.
© 2001-2024 Fundación Dialnet · Todos los derechos reservados