Straniamenti e spaesamenti di Luigi Gualdo

Personaggi e luoghi tra ideale e realtà, cosmopolitismo e sradicamento

Authors

  • Filippo Fonio Université Grenoble Alpes UFR Langues

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18352/inc11009

Abstract

Estrangement and Out-of-Placeness in the Works of Luigi Gualdo

Characters and places between ideal and reality, cosmopolitanism and uprooting

This paper focuses on the different forms of estrangement and out-of-placeness which can be found in Luigi Gualdo’s works. Gualdo (1844-1898) was a prominent writer whose works are influenced by French realism and Parnasse, Italian scapigliatura and the European decadence and estheticism. Moreover, he lived between France and Italy and he was one of the main passeurs between French and Italian literature of his time. This particular condition of the writer is reflected in his works and in particular in the portraiture of his characters, which are often rootless artists and mundane women with a strong component of cosmopolitism. The aim of this paper is to analyse some of the characteristics and features of Gualdo’s characters according to the parameters of estrangement and out-of-placeness. In particular I will focus on the ambiguous nature of the relation between ideal world and reality, of artistic genius and its place in society and the normal world, as well as on more specific topics related to the subject, such as spleen, places described as theatrical decors, hotel rooms and feminine nomadic attitudes, cosmopolitism as both a challenge and an opportunity for the characters. I will conclude on a specific issue regarding the struggle between the estranged character, time, and aging.

Author Biography

Filippo Fonio, Université Grenoble Alpes UFR Langues

Filippo Fonio è Professore Associato all’Université Grenoble Alpes (Francia). Si occupa in particolare di letteratura franco-italiana (D’Annunzio, Malaparte, Marinetti, Gualdo e scrittori francesi) e di transfert culturali tra i due paesi e le due lingue, di teoria della letteratura (Jolles, Auerbach, la teoria delle forme e la morfologia del testo agiografico), della fortuna di Dante in Francia e in special modo nella cultura popolare, di medievalismo. È cofondatore della biblioteca digitale franco-italiana ‘Fonte Gaia’ e animatore del blog del progetto.

Published

2021-09-09

How to Cite

Fonio, F. (2021) “Straniamenti e spaesamenti di Luigi Gualdo: Personaggi e luoghi tra ideale e realtà, cosmopolitismo e sradicamento”, Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani, 36(1), pp. 95–105. doi: 10.18352/inc11009.