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This paper focuses on four major exponents of Italian modernism: Luigi Pirandello, Italo Svevo, Aldo Palazzeschi, and Carlo Emilio Gadda. Individual differences aside, their work is characterized by what can be defined as absolute laughter – i.e., a tendency to question the overall seriousness of life as a whole. This applies, first of all, to the implied author’s attitude towards the world; Pirandello’s umorismo, Svevo’s irony, Palazzeschi’s controdolore, and Gadda’s satire all share this universal, all-encompassing value. In this respect they are not far from Freud’s definition of humor, as they all imply an infinite degree of detachment from life, and ultimately represent a defense mechanism from excessive emotional involvement.Absolute laughter can be seen, in fact, as a reaction to a tragic/pathetic view of life, whereby emotional involvement can only coincide with infinite suffering. In the four authors at issue, this process takes the shape of a splitting of the object (Klein) – in other words, life is considered as absolutely tragic and inherently laughable at the same time. Within such a framework, modernist laughter is the opposite of emotion (namely a defensive reaction from it), but on the other hand it is based on a very similar process; to borrow Matte Blanco’s terminology, absolute laughter also has an infinitizing nature, i.e. it implies an extreme, undifferentiated detachment from the world in its entirety. Despite often displaying a ratiocinating appearance, this kind of laughter is closer to the symmetrical logic of emotion rather than to rational, asymmetrical logic; after illustrating this aspect with regard to the implied author’s stance, this essay moves on to analyze the characters’ behavior (especially in Pirandello and Svevo) from a similar perspective.

La tesi esplora un sotto-genere del romanzo emerso in Europa nei primi decenni del Novecento, in particolare nel periodo tra le due guerre. Qui lo si chiama "romanzo intellettuale", perché la sua forma intreccia narrazione e riflessione, mentre i suoi temi centrali ruotano attorno a questioni epistemologiche. La ricerca si concentra in particolare su tre autori appartenenti alla letteratura italiana e di lingua tedesca: Robert Musil, Italo Svevo e Luigi Pirandello. Attraverso una analisi comparatistica delle loro opere principali e delle riflessioni teoriche contenute nei loro saggi, il lavoro si propone di gettare luce sul ruolo degli autori italiani nel modernismo europeo, Gegenstand der vorliegenden Dissertation ist eine Untergattung der Romanform, die im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts und insbesondere in der Zwischenkriegszeit in Europa entstanden ist. Ich nenne sie den „intellektuellen Roman“, weil ihre Form durch eine Mischung von narrativen und reflexiven Passagen gekennzeichnet ist, während sich ihre Themen um epistemologische Fragen drehen. Im Fokus der Untersuchung stehen deutsch- und italienischsprachige Autoren (Robert Musil, Luigi Pirandello und Italo Svevo). Die Arbeit versteht sich als Beitrag zu der in den italienischen Modernist Studies geführten Debatte um die Rolle italienischer Autoren in der europäischen „Klassischen Moderne“

This paper focuses on four major exponents of Italian modernism: Luigi Pirandello, Italo Svevo, Aldo Palazzeschi, and Carlo Emilio Gadda. Individual differences aside, their work is characterized by what can be defined as absolute laughter – i.e., a tendency to question the overall seriousness of life as a whole. This applies, first of all, to the implied author’s attitude towards the world; Pirandello’s umorismo, Svevo’s irony, Palazzeschi’s controdolore, and Gadda’s satire all share this universal, all-encompassing value. In this respect they are not far from Freud’s definition of humor, as they all imply an infinite degree of detachment from life, and ultimately represent a defense mechanism from excessive emotional involvement. Absolute laughter can be seen, in fact, as a reaction to a tragic/pathetic view of life, whereby emotional involvement can only coincide with infinite suffering. In the four authors at issue, this process takes the shape of a splitting of the object (Klein) – in other words, life is considered as absolutely tragic and inherently laughable at the same time. Within such a framework, modernist laughter is the opposite of emotion (namely a defensive reaction from it), but on the other hand it is based on a very similar process; to borrow Matte Blanco’s terminology, absolute laughter also has an infinitizing nature, i.e. it implies an extreme, undifferentiated detachment from the world in its entirety. Despite often displaying a ratiocinating appearance, this kind of laughter is closer to the symmetrical logic of emotion rather than to rational, asymmetrical logic; after illustrating this aspect with regard to the implied author’s stance, this essay moves on to analyze the characters’ behavior (especially in Pirandello and Svevo) from a similar perspective.

This paper focuses on four major exponents of Italian modernism: Luigi Pirandello, Italo Svevo, Aldo Palazzeschi, and Carlo Emilio Gadda. Individual differences aside, their work is characterized by what can be defined as absolute laughter – i.e., a tendency to question the overall seriousness of life as a whole. This applies, first of all, to the implied author’s attitude towards the world; Pirandello’s umorismo, Svevo’s irony, Palazzeschi’s controdolore, and Gadda’s satire all share this universal, all-encompassing value. In this respect they are not far from Freud’s definition of humor, as they all imply an infinite degree of detachment from life, and ultimately represent a defense mechanism from excessive emotional involvement. Absolute laughter can be seen, in fact, as a reaction to a tragic/pathetic view of life, whereby emotional involvement can only coincide with infinite suffering. In the four authors at issue, this process takes the shape of a splitting of the object (Klein) – in other words, life is considered as absolutely tragic and inherently laughable at the same time. Within such a framework, modernist laughter is the opposite of emotion (namely a defensive reaction from it), but on the other hand it is based on a very similar process; to borrow Matte Blanco’s terminology, absolute laughter also has an infinitizing nature, i.e. it implies an extreme, undifferentiated detachment from the world in its entirety. Despite often displaying a ratiocinating appearance, this kind of laughter is closer to the symmetrical logic of emotion rather than to rational, asymmetrical logic; after illustrating this aspect with regard to the implied author’s stance, this essay moves on to analyze the characters’ behavior (especially in Pirandello and Svevo) from a similar perspective.

Il saggio mette a confronto tre romanzi di Svevo (“Una vita”, “Senilità”, “La coscienza di Zeno”) e tre romanzi di Pirandello (“Il fu Mattia Pascal“, “I quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore”, “Uno, nessuno e centomila”) per mettere in rilievo il ruolo e i caratteri dei protagonisti. Pur nella diversità della trama, essi hanno in comune la rappresentazione di personaggi inetti, abulici, tormentati, dubbiosi, privi di certezze, problematici. In questo modo riflettono la situazione di crisi della società di fine Ottocento e di primo Novecento, allorché crollano i miti positivistici del progresso scientifico e tecnologico, mostrando come al benessere e ai miglioramenti materiali non sempre si accompagna la serenità dello spirito.

Il saggio si propone di analizzare la metafora della finestra nella narrativa di Verga, Pirandello e Svevo

L’immediata traduzione di Degenerazione di Nordau, nel 1893-94, segnò profondamente la letteratura italiana. La «mancanza della facoltà di adattamento» alla nuova dimensione della modernità portò allo scoperto, tra le ombre del darwinismo negativo, il processo degenerativo dell’umanità. Individuati alla fin de siècle, molti fenomeni si sono rivelati irreversibili, riemergendo nel passaggio al nuovo millennio e rendendo alcune figure, come quella del vecchio, metafore assolute dei falsi rinnovamenti dell’epoca tecnologica.