Bound by Representation: Imagining Slavery in Early Modern Naples

Sally Tucker, M.A.

My PhD dissertation examines the figure of the enslaved ‘Other’ in the Early Modern Neapolitan cultural imaginary through the interdisciplinary analysis of artworks, literary texts, and theatrical scripts. A central hub for Mediterranean slavery, Naples counted an estimated 20,000 enslaved persons among its population in the seventeenth century, the highest numbers of any city in the Italian peninsula. Despite these statistics, and despite the ubiquitous presence of slave labor in the city’s private and public spaces, the ways in which Neapolitans regarded enslaved persons remains understudied. My project considers how the transmedial representation of enslaved persons reflects, elides, or contradicts archival data, addressing how this dynamic informs our understanding of Neapolitan identity and its relationship to forced mobility. By focusing on representational practices in Naples, a Spanish possession at the forefront of the Hapsburg-Ottoman conflict, my project illuminates the intersections of local, Mediterranean, and global categories of difference in Early Modernity.