La dimensione partenopea nella poetica di de Rada

This article explores the Neapolitan dimension in the poetics of Girolamo De
Rada, a foundational figure of Albanian Romanticism. Moving beyond the conventio
nal critical focus on Arbëria and on De Rada’s positioning within the so-called “minor
Calabrian Romanticism,” this study approaches Naples not merely as a biographical bac
kground but as a creative and symbolic myth that profoundly shaped his poetic imagi
nation. Drawing on unpublished archival sources—police records, periodicals such as
“L’Omnibus” and “La Sirena”, and early editions of “Serafina Thopia”—the article highli
ghts how De Rada’s Neapolitan experience forged a tension between poetry and revolu
tion, desire and trauma, vision and censorship. Central motifs such as the myth of Psyche
and the “Pelasgic Divinations” reveal Naples as both mother-city and stepmother, a place
of inspiration and inner exile. By situating De Rada’s work in the ambivalent cultural
landscape of Naples, this study reframes his contribution within the broader transnatio
nal Romantic movement and the early construction of Albanian cultural identity.