Le raffigurazioni di sé, esplicite e occulte, della camorra napoletana. Stereotipi estetici, magico-religiosi e artistici della comunicazione criminale

Since its origins in the nineteenth century, the camorra has somewhat always taken care of its looks, as we would say nowadays. Its image has always been found between the need to move towards the occult dimension, in the shadow, and the necessity to affirm itself explicitly, to make its power apparent, and celebrate itself in the eyes of the Neapolitan urban proletariat, working class and even aristocracy: a social context to exploit or to do business with. The channels activated to outwardly underline the exercise of an absolutist will, grounded on violence, omertà and revenge are manifold. The first medium used to achieve this goal is the criminal’s body itself: through the use of some details or codified tattoos, together with a bombastic clothing style, the human body underlines the affiliation to the men of honour. The camorra shows very precociously a capacity to identify those media that can magnify and brilliantly perpetuate its own image: from animation and theatre to popular songs and cinema.