For a cultural reading of the Italian Risorgimento in Sicily : the Euro-Mediterranean routes of Giuseppe La Farina, Carlo Gemelli, and Salvatore Chindemi 1800-1860

Abstract

This thesis examines the Sicilian Risorgimento through the biographies of three southern intellectuals and patriots who lived in southern Italy during the Bourbon monarchy of Naples in the first half of the 19th century. The focus is on the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, situated within a Euro-Mediterranean context where major powers of the time, such as Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and above all France and England, contended for the protection of the Bourbon kingdom, particularly Sicily. The study emphasizes the cultural education of three Sicilian patriots, their experiences during the cholera epidemic, the revolts of 1837, and their involvement in the Sicilian Revolution of 1848, as well as the subsequent Sicilian counterrevolution. Additionally, it explores their experiences of exile, with popular destinations including Tuscany, nearby Malta, France, Belgium, and Piedmont. Ultimately, Piedmont became the final destination for all three protagonists, where they embraced the unification efforts led by the Cavour faction and the House of Savoy, abandoning alternative solutions such as republicanism, separatism, and federalism. In terms of methodology, I employed a combination of three approaches: Mediterranean studies (New Thalassology), transnational cultural history, and the history of emotions.