TALK: напоминание о докладе М. Верде "The Neapolitan Paradox: From World-Class Cultural Heritage to Toxic Commodification " в ИЯз РАН 23.4.26 в 16 ч.
Эржен Хилханова
Speaker: Dott. Massimiliano Verde, Presidente Accademia Napoletana Tutela Cultura e Lingua Napoletana, Director of the "Free Chair of Neapolitan Language and Culture" (Cátedra Libre de Lengua y Cultura Napolitana) at the National University of La Plata
This talk examines the “anthropological catastrophe” affecting the linguistic and cultural ecology of Naples through an interdisciplinary framework that integrates sociolinguistics, cultural studies, and decolonial theory. The Neapolitan language—an ancient linguistic system rooted in Oscan and Hellenic strata—constitutes an exceptional form of intangible cultural heritage. Yet, its very exceptionality is being transformed into a “toxic brand”: an empty semiotic construct produced by globalized cultural industries and segments of the local intelligentsia aligned with centralized national cultural power, and reinforced through forms of mass entertainment such as music, television series, novels, and films. This process of systemic erosion is further intensified by deeply entrenched forms of institutional paternalism, which operate through the mystification of the Neapolitan *Kosmoantilipsis*—a millennia-old, Mediterranean-rooted understanding of the cosmos and social reality. Rather than being acknowledged as a complex epistemological system, this worldview is strategically reframed as subaltern and “visceral” folklore, thereby stripped of its intellectual and philosophical legitimacy.
This transformation may be conceptualized as a form of “semantic extractivism,” whereby elements of Neapolitan expressive culture are decontextualized and commodified, producing a “zombie identity” shaped by criminological and sensationalist paradigms, particularly through the mediating mechanism of “Gomorrah”. Such representations actively construct a deterministic and pathologized image of the Neapolitan subject, reinforced by narratives of a distinctly Lombrosian character. Within this framework, Neapolitan is reduced to an atavistically brutal and feminicidal language, associated with intrinsic criminality, while Neapolitan women are subjected to forms of ontological victimization. Caught between folkloristic narratives of enforced domesticity and the messianic trope of the “lone heroine,” they are effectively deprived of historical agency.
A central dimension of this process lies in the structural exclusion of Neapolitan from formal education. Despite its codified literary and grammatical tradition—from Basile to Iandolo—local communities and the diaspora are systematically denied access to its orthography and literacy. By substituting authentic education with folklorized “cabaret” representations while simultaneously criminalizing the language, the system produces a condition of functional linguistic illiteracy: Neapolitan-speaking children are effectively barred from accessing their own literary and orthographic heritage, in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). This results in a paradoxical condition in which folklore is preserved yet deprived of epistemic legitimacy, giving rise to processes of linguistic expropriation and broader forms of social dispossession.
The author ultimately argues for a radical rearticulation of linguistic sovereignty, positioning the Neapolitan language as a crucial site of epistemic resistance and cultural decolonization. As the history of the ancient capital, Neapolis, demonstrates, these are among its most distinctive and enduring qualities. In this context, the Neapolitan Academy advocates for international cooperation with other minoritized communities, proposing the Neapolitan experience as a prototypical model of cultural and social resistance.
Date and time: 23 April, 2026 at 4:00 pm (Moscow time, UTC+3)
Moderator: Andrej Kibrik, Director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Timing: 1 hour + 1,5 hours discussion
Languages: English and Russian
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Sincerely,
coordinator of the DACLP
Erzhen Khilkhanova