Naples

Naples

Naples celebrates the story of one of southwest Florida's most renowned beach resorts, from its tenuous beginning in 1885 through the tumultuous year of 1960, when Hurricane Donna nearly destroyed the town once hailed as the "Summerland in Wintertime." Founded as a place where "invalids can escape the chilling blasts of winter," the distant paradise was accessible only by boat, and by 1890, the new town boasted a pier, the Naples Hotel-and little else. With train service arriving in Naples in 1927 and the opening of the Tamiami Trail in 1928, the once-remote resort was finally open to development, but the Depression turned the dreamed-of boom into a bust until after World War II. The picture-perfect beaches and warm winter climate were soon "rediscovered," and by the time Hurricane Donna stormed ashore on September 10, 1960, Naples was the fastest-growing city in Collier County.

Naples

Naples and the Nation

This book addresses Naples’ relationship with Italy, since the introduction of direct mayoral election in 1993 and as articulated in cultural production. It deploys theoretical frameworks pertaining to postcolonialism and cultural accentedness to challenge the historical framing of Naples as Italy’s internal ‘other’ and to reposition the city at the very heart of the Italian cultural imaginary. The book showcases the breadth of texts and media addressing the city-nation relationship, analysing less renowned works of journalism, literature, fashion and film alongside celebrated texts such as Roberto Saviano’s Gomorra, Elena Ferrante’s ‘Neapolitan Novels’ and the soap opera Un posto al sole. It highlights how such works contest perceptions of Naples as diverging from a national norm by emphasising the continuities that align the city with the nation. Though developed with the specificities of Naples in mind, the approach is intended as a model for the study of city-nation relations in other cultural contexts.