Christ Stopped at Eboli is a memoir

Memoir

A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

 by Carlo Levi

Carlo Levi

Dr. Carlo Levi was an Italian-Jewish painter, writer, activist, anti-fascist, and doctor.He is best known for his book Cristo si è fermato a Eboli , published in 1945, a memoir of his time spent in exile in Lucania, Italy, after being arrested in connection with his political activism...

, published in 1945, giving an account of his exile from 1935-1936 to Grassano

Grassano

Grassano is a town and comune in the province of Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is located between the Bradano and Basento rivers, at an altitude variable from c. 150 to 576 meters above the sea level...

 and Aliano

Aliano

Aliano is a town and comune in the province of Matera and is located about 90 kilometers from Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata....

, remote towns in southern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, in the region of Lucania

Lucania

Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium...

 which is known today as Basilicata

Basilicata

Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...

. In the book he gives Aliano the invented name 'Gagliano'.

"The title of the book comes from an expression by the people of 'Gagliano' who say of themselves, 'Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli' which means, in effect, that they feel they have been bypassed by Christianity, by morality, by history itself—that they have somehow been excluded from the full human experience." Levi explained that Eboli

Eboli

Eboli is a town and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Salerno, on the south edge of the hills overlooking the valley of the Sele....

, a location in the region of Campania to the west near the seacoast, is where the road and railway to Basilicata branched away from the coastal north-south routes.

Background

Carlo Levi was a doctor, writer and painter, a native of Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

. In 1935, Levi's anti-fascist beliefs and activism led to his banishment by Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

's fascist

National Fascist Party

The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...

 government to a period of internal exile in a remote region of southern Italy. Despite his status as a political exile Levi was welcomed with open arms, for the people of this area were naturally gracious hosts. His book, Christ Stopped At Eboli, focuses on his year in the villages of the Lucania region and the people he encountered there.

Grassano and 'Gagliano'

The villages of Grassano and 'Gagliano' were extremely poor. They lacked basic goods because there were no shops in the village. A typical though meagre diet consisted of bread, oil, crushed tomatoes, and peppers. The villages did not have many modern items, and those they did were not often utilized. One working bathroom in the town stood as a retreat for animals rather than people. Also, only one car was found in the area. Homes were sparsely furnished; the most frequent decoration consisted of an American dollar, a photo of the American president Roosevelt, or the Madonna di Viggiano displayed on their walls. Healthcare was atrocious. The two doctors in town were invariably inept. The peasants simply did not trust the in-town physicians and therefore counted on Levi's medical skills instead. Malaria took the lives of many villagers; it was merciless and rampant. Education was available, but as Levi stated, the mayor who taught class spent more time overlooking the balcony than educating the children.

The religious values of the villages Levi visited were a mixture of Christianity and mysticism. While the people were pious in the sense that they were moral and kind, they were not exactly religious. They did not avidly attend church, and in fact ostracized their priest, who was a drunk and allegedly had sexual relations of a profane nature. The priest, however, had just as much dislike for the people, as evident by his statement "The people here are donkeys, not Christians." It seems that Christianity was not fully embraced; this is shown by the multitude of priests begetting illegitimate children and the licentious sexual relations that were often overlooked. Superstitions, gnomes, and spells seemed to shape day-to-day tasks, not Christ and the belief in God. People did, however, attend church on holidays like Christmas, and did respect the Madonna. When reading this it becomes apparent that Christianity was an idea introduced but never completely adopted.

Lucania: fascism and wars

The southern half of Italy was not completely on-board with Mussolini and his fascist government. The southerners were looked upon as inferior citizens. Levi recalls one local man's view that he and his fellow people were not even considered humans, rather dogs. He tells another Northerners view of the southerners "inherent racial inferiority". The people specifically felt torn from Italy, and looked to America as a beacon of hope and prosperity rather than Rome. Levi writes "Yes, New York, rather than Rome or Naples would be the real capital of the peasants of Lucania, if these men without a country could have a capital at all." He is insinuating that the peasants and people of Lucania have no country which cares for them. The people were in dire shape, they lived in complete destitution and yet nothing was being done to provide for them. The war with Abyssinia only served to remind them of the impossibility of emigrating to America.

In 1935 Italy began a quick war

Italo-Abyssinian War

Two conflicts between Italy and Ethiopia are known as the Italo-Abyssinian War:* The First Italo-Abyssinian War of 1895–1896 resulted in a victory for the Ethiopians and internation recognition of their empire by the great powers of the time.* The Second Italo-Abyssinian War of...

 in Abyssinia

Ethiopian Empire

The Ethiopian Empire also known as Abyssinia, covered a geographical area that the present-day northern half of Ethiopia and Eritrea covers, and included in its peripheries Zeila, Djibouti, Yemen and Western Saudi Arabia...

 (present day Ethiopia). The people in Levi's village thought little to nothing about it. It did not faze them and they had no hope of any gain because of it. Levi refers to them as being indifferent to the war cause, and mentions only one man who enlisted to escape a troubled home life. He does notice however that they do not talk about World War I despite the fact that a large number of men in the village lost their lives.

Near the end of his stay Levi takes a trip to the north to attend a funeral. After spending almost a year in Lucania he feels an awkwardness he had not experienced before. As he talks with friends and acquaintances about politics he begins to uncover a common ignorance about the issue of Southern Italy. He listens as people share their opinions on "the problems of the south" about who is to blame and what can be done. A commonality is found amongst all their answers, the state must take action! They must do "something concretely useful, and beneficent, and miraculous." Levi chalks this response up to having fourteen years worth of fascist notions in their heads. He goes on to explain how the idea of a united "utopian" Italy has been subconsciously ingrained in all of them.

Film adaptation

In 1979, the book was adapted into a film, directed by Francesco Rosi

Francesco Rosi

Francesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...

 and starring Gian Maria Volonté

Gian Maria Volontè

Gian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.-Early life:Volonté was born in Milan, and graduated in Rome in 1957...

as Carlo Levi.

Sources

• Christ Stopped at Eboli — a brief review, The Booklocker
• Carlo Levi's Book Christ Stopped at Eboli