“Vendetta Mountain” by C. A. Fiore ... A ‘Low-Brow’ Symptom of ‘Culture War’ Waged Against Southern-Italian Americans

Tom Verso (September 19, 2013)
After the northern Italian Piedmontese Army conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies circa 1861, they embarked on a Culture War bent on destroying the history and culture of the South in the minds of southern Italians, and substituting northern Italian history and culture in its place (see "Related Articles link #1 “When Military…). The phenomenal success of this Culture War in Italy is documented in Pino Aprile’s book “Terroni” (see "Related Articles link #2 & 3 “Terroni …). However, the North’s Culture War against southern Italians was not limited to Italy. The ‘total shock and awe’ culture assault has been carried to the southern-Italian diaspora in America. Again, as in Italy, the northern-Italian culture hegemonists have been wildly successful. Near seventeen million Americans of southern Italian descent not only know nothing about their pre-Ellis Island history/culture; they have been systemically mislead and misinformed by Northern hegemonic operatives in universities and mass media. Southern-Italian Americans have come to think the history/culture of the North (e.g. Renaissance) is their history/culture. This blog has repeatedly documented Northern hegemony in the minds and institutions of the Italian American literati (e.g. university Italian Studies programs) and prominenti such as politicians, lawyers, etc. (e.g see Related Articles link #4 "Ivory Tower…) However, Northern hegemony is not limited to ‘high-brow’ academic and professional elites. The depths of the North’s Culture War's insidious penetration can be found in ‘low-brow’ southern-Italian American ‘pulp-fiction’ such as Carmen Anthony Fiore’s ‘dime-novel’ “Vendetta Mountain.”


Melodrama

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