Mundunur: A Mountain Village Under the Spell of South Italy

by Michele A Di Marco

Overview

Montenero Val Cocchiara is usually referred to simply as Montenero, or Mundunur in the local dialect. It is a typical mountain village on the border of Italy's Abruzzo and Molise regions, but Montenero is more than that. Certainly the village and its people retain unique traditions and character traits because of its relative seclusion. At the same time-as fully revealed in this book-its history was tinted by contacts with numerous powerful groups over many centuries. Since Naples was the political and cultural heartbeat of south Italy, it sewed threads that tie Montenero to a heritage common to all living in the sunny south.

      Anyone with roots in south Italy will certainly benefit from reading this book. However, the author's greater aspiration is that others will equally enjoy the story of Montenero as a metaphor for their own ancestral village or town, regardless of country-or even see the village as a microcosm of the world, where the forces of history and culture forge the character of people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780996716109
Publisher:	Via Media Publishing
Publication date:	08/03/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	337
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michele A. DiMarco studied Italian at the University for Foreigners in Perugia and received a master's degree from Seton Hall University. He founded Via Media Publishing in 1991, publishing a quarterly journal and books. He's written nearly one hundred articles that have been published in a variety of periodicals.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Valeria Cocozza, Ph.D., University of Molise

CHAPTERS:

1. Table Talk: Legends of the Old Country
2. A Foreigner Discovers the Ancestral Village
3. Setting the Stage Between Land and Sky
4. Footprints in Isernia Leading to Romanization
5. Knock, Knock: Invasions from the North & South
6. Spain Transforms a Kingdom into a Colony
7. Nobles, Peasants, Rebels, and Relics
8. Spanish Attempt to Restore the Kingdom
9. The French Return and the Spanish Follow
10. Quasi-Unification, Social Unrest, Emigration
11. Political Undercurrents and World War I
12. Back to Work: Tools, Land, and Home
13. Modern Black Shirts: Dressing for World War II
14. Postwar Pleasures and Pains
15. Molise's Future and Montenero Hereafter
16. A Three-Day Fictional Tour of Montenero

• Postscript: Montenero's Grand Relationship
• Notes, Appendices, Bibliography, Index