The Art of Making Do in Naples

Pine, Jason

ISBN 10: 0816676011 / ISBN 13: 9780816676019

Editore: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2012

In. Codice articolo ria9780816676019_new

Riassunto:

&;In Naples, there are more singers than there are unemployed people.&; These words echo through the neomelodica music scene, a vast undocumented economy animated by wedding singers, pirate TV, and tens of thousands of fans throughout southern Italy and beyond. In a city with chronic unemployment, this setting has attracted hundreds of aspiring singers trying to make a living&;or even a fortune. In the process, they brush up against affiliates of the region&;s violent organized crime networks, the camorra. In The Art of Making Do in Naples, Jason Pine explores the murky neomelodica music scene and finds himself on uncertain ground.



The &;art of making do&; refers to the informal and sometimes illicit entrepreneurial tactics of some Neapolitans who are pursuing a better life for themselves and their families. In the neomelodica music scene, the art of making do involves operating do-it-yourself recording studios and performing at the private parties of crime bosses. It can also require associating with crime boss-impresarios who guarantee their success by underwriting it with extortion, drug trafficking, and territorial influence. Pine, likewise &;making do,&; gradually realized that the completion of his ethnographic work also depended on the aid of forbidding figures.



The Art of Making Do in Naples offers a riveting ethnography of the lives of men who seek personal sovereignty in a shadow economy dominated, in incalculable ways, by the camorra. Pine navigates situations suffused with secrecy, moral ambiguity, and fears of ruin that undermine the anthropologist&;s sense of autonomy. Making his way through Naples&;s spectacular historic center and outer slums, on the trail of charmingly evasive neomelodici singers and unsettlingly elusive camorristi, Pine himself becomes a music video director and falls into the orbit of a shadowy music promoter who may or may not be a camorra affiliate.



Pine&;s trenchant observations and his own improvised attempts at &;making do&; provide a fascinating look into the lives of people in the gray zones where organized crime blends into ordinary life.

Informazioni sull?autore:

Jason Pine is assistant professor of anthropology and media, society and the arts at Purchase College, State University of New York.

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: The Art of Making Do in Naples
Casa editrice: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Data di pubblicazione: 2012
Legatura: Brossura
Condizione: New