%0 Journal Article
%T Italian unification¡¯s blind spot: Verga¡¯s ¡°Libertš€¡± and Vancini¡¯s Bronte: Cronaca di un massacro che i libri di storia non hanno mai raccontato
%A Giordana Poggiolo-Kaftan
%J Forum Italicum
%@ 2168-989X
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0014585818813982
%X In this article, I analyze the short story ¡°Libertš€¡± by Giovanni Verga and the film Bronte: Cronaca di un massacro che i libri di storia non hanno mai raccontato by Florestano Vancini. I also bring into my discussion Benedetto Radice¡¯s essay Nino Bixio a Bronte to weave a critique of general Nino Bixio¡¯s bloody repression of the Bronte peasants¡¯ revolt. Contemporary scholars, like Leonardo Sciascia and Salvatore Lupo, criticized Verga¡¯s story because of its omissions of historical facts, accusing him of not taking a political stance. In contrast, I contend that Verga¡¯s omissions are due to his subaltern position, as a Sicilian writer working for northern readers and publishers. Then, I turn to Vancini¡¯s film that foregrounds Garibaldi¡¯s broken promise and the Risorgimento¡¯s shortcomings. Vancini¡¯s film addresses also the North and South¡¯s cultural divide, and the ensuing deep incomprehension between the two political and geographical regions. This cultural divide has been the site of a race discourse, which is still active in Italy today, and, at the same time, the locus of an agrarian elite that was able to manipulate a weak central government for its own gains to the detriment of the rural masses
%K galantuomini
%K Garibaldi
%K Garibaldi¡¯s edicts
%K North and South divide
%K race and ethnicity
%K Risorgimento
%K Sicilian rural masses
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0014585818813982