Utopia in Late Modernity: Literary Critiques of the ‘Neapolitan Renaissance’

Abstract Naples in the 1990s enjoyed an extraordinary period of urban and cultural renewal known as ‘Neapolitan Renaissance’. This article addresses two novels – Giuseppe Montesano’s Di questa vita menzognera (2003) Ruggero Cappuccio’s Fuoco su Napoli (2010) which alert us to utopianism ‘symbolic politics’ Neapolitan Renaissance its vulnerability exploitation. Lending credence idea that utopian fantasies grow out societies they are a response, both works envisage post-apocalyptic events leading reconstruction theme park, on part organized crime. They interrogate imbrication with criminalization global capital populist politics Berlusconi at national level. In so doing, exemplify Ruth Levitas’s distinction between utopia product process, while exploring utopia’s contemporary manifestation postmodern pastiche or retrotopian romance.