DescriptionBy 1943, the effects of war had taken its toll on Naples as the city lay in ruins and its people were starving. They were described by soldiers as returning to the Dark Ages; hungry and craving for miracles and cures. What set Italy apart from other occupied areas was its dual occupation: by the Allies in the south and the Germans in the north. More specifically, Naples was the largest resting camp for Allied serviceman as well as a city governed by corruption and the mafia known as the Camorra. As the city of Naples grew desperate, a thriving black market emerged within the city’s broken walls. Moreover, as women were helpless and passive, ready to be taken physically by their occupiers, as well as the sole providers for their families, prostitution became commonplace. Thus, I will discuss the emergence of a sexual economy in Naples, most significantly how American soldiers have discussed Naples as a place of crime, prostitution, sexually-transmitted disease, and desperation. Finally, the ways in which American soldiers have been discussed in fiction, most significantly in The Skin and The Gallery, point to an American invasion rather than occupation. We are thus presented with a new American GI, one bordering on conqueror rather than liberator.