Submerged Lucanianness and Onomastic Echoes in the Work of Gaetano Cappelli

Abstract

This article proposes “submerged Lucanian identity” as a critical framework for understanding contemporary literary representations of Basilicata/Lucania,
examining Gaetano Cappelli’s short story collection Canzoni della giovinezza perduta (2010) as a primary case study. Drawing on the historical and cultural context of Basilicata, the study analyzes narrative onomastics – proper names, nicknames, and hypocoristics – as fundamental instruments of character construction. In Cappelli’s stories, names carry pronounced regional resonance and function as identity markers that compress territorial belonging, collective memory, and psychological depth. Through these strategies, the author displaces conventional Southern Italian stereotypes, situating Lucanian experience firmly within a contemporary, generational register. Rather than a folkloric essence, Lucanian identity emerges as a contested and lived experience, articulated through displacement, alterity, and self-interrogation.