ABSTRACT

Naples was conventionally the southernmost stop of the Grand Tour beyond which, it was assumed, lay violent disorder: earthquakes, malaria, bandits, inhospitable inns, few roads and appalling food. On the other hand, Southern Italy lay at the heart of Magna Graecia, whose legends were hard-wired into the cultural imaginations of the educated.

This book studies the British travellers who visited Italy's Southern territories. Spanning the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, the author considers what these travellers discovered, not in the form of a survey, but as a series of unfolding impressions disclosing multiple Southern Italies. Of the numerous travellers analysed within this volume, the central figures are Henry Swinburne, Craufurd Tait Ramage and Norman Douglas, whose Old Calabria (1915) remains in print. Their appeal is that they take the region seriously: Southern Italy wasn't simply a testing ground for their superior sensibilities, it was a vibrant curiosity, unknown but within reach. Was the South simply behind on the road to European integration; or was it beyond a fault line, representing a viable alternative to Northern neuroses? The travelogues analysed in this book address a wide variety of themes which continue to shape discussions about European identity today.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

The End of Europe?

chapter 1|32 pages

Naples

Liminal City

chapter 2|19 pages

Cities of the Dead

Pompeii to Paestum

chapter 3|28 pages

Magna Graecia

chapter 4|23 pages

Ways of Seeing

Earthquakes and Landscapes

chapter 5|27 pages

Politics and Revolutions

chapter 6|18 pages

In Praise of Baroque

chapter 7|18 pages

Myths and Legends

chapter 8|15 pages

Africa and the Orient

chapter |2 pages

Conclusion