For a Democratic Literature. Manzoni and His Time | R. Balzani, D. Brogi, G. Tellini
The romantic myth that geniuses are always misunderstood and great works struggle to gain traction among contemporaries is resoundingly refuted by the success of The Betrothed, a work that immediately established itself as an aesthetic and moral model for the nascent urban bourgeoisie. This lecture therefore aims to reconstruct the impact of Manzoni's work on Italian public opinion, not only exposing the success of certain ideas present in The Betrothed but also clarifying the importance of Manzoni's anti-classicist linguistic reform for both Italian literature and the ideology of the Risorgimento. Particular emphasis will be placed on the phenomenon of the plague, which serves not only as a central theme but also as a compositional logic for the entire book, reaffirming, among other things,—given the recent pandemic—the extraordinary relevance of the most important novel in Italian literature.
The Contributions
Manzoni and the Construction of a National Audience, by Roberto Balzani
In the decades preceding 1848, a public took shape in Italy—that is, a relatively widespread opinion among the urban middle and upper-middle classes—one capable of appreciating literary works and melodramas; of discussing history and progress; and of aspiring to a Western perspective, without thereby mortgaging the political future of the peninsula. For this milieu, Alessandro Manzoni represented an essential point of reference: an author destined, even during his lifetime, to become a part of the national canon.
The following will be discussed:
How to survey Italian opinion. Publishing centers, works in circulation, and the success of genres are indicators of a nascent audience; but so too are the proliferation of theaters and the spread of a passion for melodrama.
The Impact of the Past and the Present. The nation needs a past in which to reflect itself and a present in which to fight for its common future. The temporal bridge is a crucial ideological and narrative device; and Manzoni masters it like a master.
The construction of the Risorgimento "canon." During the Risorgimento, a veritable canon was formed, characterized by celebrated, read, and popular authors. Manzoni is one of these. His success is evidenced by the viral diffusion of his characters, from which he even draws political satire.
"The Betrothed" in a Time of Plague, by Daniela Brogi
The recent events of the pandemic have made Manzoni's work an even more eloquent and challenging text. The time of the plague, in fact, is no longer just that of the seventeenth century, but also that of the present in which we read, study, and teach "The Betrothed." In light of this challenge, the plague is considered historical content, an illness, a trauma, and, at the same time, the plague also acts as a compositional logic. It is the narrative and visual device through which to construct the body of writing and provide insight into the fate of the multitudes.
The Meaning and Relevance of Manzoni, by Gino Tellini
This presentation aims to clarify why Manzoni is considered a fundamental author of Italian literature and why his teachings are still essential to contemporary culture. After a historical introduction, dedicated to the radical shift Manzoni introduced into our literary culture, specific aspects of The Betrothed will be considered.
The following will be discussed:
The radical shift accomplished by Manzoni. Manzoni marked a decisive turning point with respect to the classicist tradition (begun in the late fourteenth century by Petrarch and canonized by Bembo in 1525) based on these assumptions: fourteenth-century written language and monolingualism; elitist and aristocratic literature; the primacy of the self, of lyric poetry, and of the theme of love.
Manzoni's Battle. Manzoni fights for a language of use; For a democratic literature; against the primacy of the ego and for a choral perspective; for the anti-classical genre of the novel, until now considered inferior (although Manzoni proceeds along a line of marked discontinuity with Foscolo's Ortis, 1802); against mythology and against the primacy of the (Petrarcan) theme of love.
The functioning of The Betrothed. The "unraveling" and the escape from the confines of the ego, the multi-perspective angle and the (open) notion of "providence"; the novel as a multifaceted phenomenology of violence; the "jumble of the human heart" and the denunciation of the irrational mysticism of the "heart"; the responsibility and conscience of the word against its "tampering" (the word of the honest person, the word of the bully, the word of doctors during the plague, the word "fatherland").