ABSTRACT
During the second half of the 1870s, Pasquale Villari, Leopoldo Franchetti, and Sidney Sonnino elaborated a new vision of southern Italy. Their writings articulated for the first time the regional specificity of the social, political, and economic conditions of the South, inaugurating both the Southern Question and the field of meridionalismo. This chapter examines the particular set of concepts, figures, and rhetorical strategies through which Villari represents the South to the readers of L'Opinione. It also examines the way Villari elaborates what will prove to be a defining feature of Meridionalist discourse from this point forward: the exceptional nature of the South, its peculiarity and radical difference with respect to the rest of Italy and, indeed, modern European civilization as a whole. In the first place, Villari addresses the problem of working conditions in the Sicilian sulfur mines, suggesting that they are representative of those in other areas and industries. But the overall effect of his discussion is quite the opposite.
