Italian Romanticism: Myth vs History Author(s): Franco Ferrucci Source: MLN, Vol. 98, No. 1, Italian Issue (Jan.

, 1983), pp. 111-117 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2905820 . Accessed: 16/09/2011 14:45
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Italian Romanticism: Myth vs History

Franco Ferrucci

The modern notion of history was born in Italy,as elsewhere,between the late Enlightenment and the first wave of Romanticism. The effects of such a cultural revolutionare visible in the three major Italian writersof the romanticperiod: Foscolo, Leopardi, and Manzoni. Each of these writershas somethingdifferent to say about history and whathistory is about. They are all witnessing the directionthathistory as a into a systematic literary genre is taking: its transformation study of the past,thus more of a science than a creativegenre withmoral purposes as it had been considered since ancient times and it was still viewed by Chateaubriand in those years. In a page of his philosophicaljournal Zibaldone(I, 144) Leopardi acand writes: knowledgessuch transformation avvenimenti comesi studiano i fenomeni, e immaginare le forze motrici andando a tastoni come i fisici. Dal che si pu6 vederequantosia scematal'utilita della
storia." "... the world of mankind has become similar to the world of nature, it is necessary to study human events as scientificphenomena are studied, and to imagine their driving forces as the physicists do, groping and experimenting. From this factone can see how weakened has become history's usefulness. With his usual sharpness, Leopardi later observes that the very name is a contradictory one. He recalls that Aristotle had given the label of history
MLN Vol. 98 Pp. 111-117 0026-7910/83/0981-0111$01.00 Press ? 1983 by The Johns Hopkins University

"...

il mondo umano e divenuto come il naturale, bisogna studiare gli

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history even to natural science; a label surviving today in the definition of "natural history". According to Leopardi, science is concerned with what does not change, like nature, history with what changes, like human events; the two terms are never put together unless they are misunderstood. There is here a pre-Darwinian idea of nature as immutable and a pre-scientific idea of history as being mainly a "narration". I shall focus on the latter, the former being beyond the scope of the present investigation. Let us pause in order to realize that the word "history" is in fact contradictory, and far more so than Leopardi suspected. History is both the tale and a study of the tale; the paradox is even clearer in Italian where the term storia is also used to signify a children's tale or even an invented presentation of reality (as in the French histoireor in the German Geschichte).I do not want to deal with the philosophical implication of such ambiguity; it is sufficient here to say that for Leopardi storia is a tale which is turning into a science, as a youth grows into an adult: acquiring knowledge and renouncing illusions. There is another well known passage from Zibaldone that abundantly proves this point (25 novembre 1822,II, 21-22): "La storia greca, romana ed ebrea contengono le reminiscenze delle idee acquistate da ciascuno nella prima fanciullezza.... Quindi lo interesse che ispiranole dettestorie,e loro parti,e tuttoci6 che loro appartiene; interesseunico nel suo genere, come fu osservato da Chateaubriand (Genie etc.); interesseche non pu6 mai esserci ispirato da verun' altra storia, sia anche pii bella, varia, grande, e per se pii importantedelle sopraddette; sia anche piu importanteper noi, come le storienazionali. Le suddettetresono le piu interessanti perche sono le piu note. . .". containthe memoriesof the ideas acquired by "Greek, Roman and Jewishhistory each man in early childhood.... Hence these histories and their parts and everythingthat belongs to them inspire an interest unique in its genre, as Chateaubriand observed (Genieetc.); an interestthatcannot be inspired in us by any other history,be it even more beautiful,varied, great and in itselfmore importantthan those mentioned above, or be it even more importantfor us, as are out national "histories".The three mentioned above are the most interesting . . .". because theyare the best known History and poetry seem to resemble each other; they both share the of mankind, at both the collective basic characteristic of being the memory and the individual level. Of course a modern historiographer would not deny that: but his attitude would be one of interpretation instead of trust. It is the same difference that separates today the notion of history from that of myth. This is the point of conflict that we are tryingto locate. It is a conflict that Leopardi inherits from the Italian 18th century more than from the romantic movement which he quickly dismissed and shunned. The Italian 18th century presents a twofold recreation of the mythical presence; as a decorative ornament of culture (also visible throughout the painting of the

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and this is the word we find in Leopardi, period) it was called mythology whilethe closestequivalent to the word mythin Zibaldone is storia.Where did the mergingof myth and history take place? Again in the 18thcentury, in the workof G. B. Vico, whose message was received in the same formby Foscolo and Leopardi. La storiais the memoryof the past in the formof when mythand poetry;it becomes a science in momentsof scarce vitality, becomes "reasonable" and "rational",i.e. withoutdaring or paseverything sion. For Leopardi, as for Foscolo, historyis a mythology (a fable) that attainsa convincinglevel: the level of myththat only poets can reach. If this is true, it could also explain why in our post-romantic idiom storia means at the same time a truthand a lie. One of the most famous passages in Foscolo is the page of his academic inaugurationin Pavia where he addresses the Italian people and urges them to turn to their past. Here is what he says:
"O italiani,io vi esorto alle storie,perche niun popolo pit di voi pu6 mostrarene calamitada compiangere,ne pit errorida evitare,ne piiuvirtui che vi facciano piui rispettare,ne piiu grandi anime degne di essere liberate dalla oblivione da chiunque di noi sa che si deve amare e difendere ed onorare la terra che fu nutriceai nostripadri ed a noi, e che dara pace e memoriaalle nostreceneri. Io vi esorto alle storie, perche angusta e l'arena degli oratori; e chi ormai pu6 contendervila poetica palma? Ma nelle storietuttasi spiega la nobiltadello stile, tutti della virtu, tuttol'incantodella poesia, tutti i precetti della sapienza, gli affetti tuttii progressie i benemeritidell' italiano sapere." "Italians, I exhort you to go back to the memories of historybecause there has never been a people who, more than you, can show more adversities to be deplored, more errors to be avoided, more virtuesfor which to be respected, more noble spirits, worthyof being freed fromoblivion,by anyone (of us) who knowsthatthe land thatnourished us and our forefathers, the land thatwillgive peace, and keep the memory of our ashes, has to be loved, honoured and defended. I urge you to go back to the memoriesof history because the rhetorical forumhas narrowed; and who can now compete withyou for the poetic laurel? But it is in history thatall the nobility of the style, all the affects of virtue,all the enchantmentsof poetry,all the teachings of wisdom, all the progress, all the achievementsof the Italian knowledge are so fullymanifested."

It is the termstorie whichis the revealingone. Foscolo's exhortationto the Italiansis to go back to le storie not to la storia:a historian would not use one word forthe other.Storiaas a science has no plural form;butstoria as a tale has one indeed. Le storie are the eventsof the past conceived and presented as legends (etymologically: the things to be read) of a nation, the memorabilia which are not to be questioned or interpretedbut simply re-enacted. Vico's thoughtis actingon Foscolo even more directly than on Leopardi. Contemporaryto the above quoted lines is the long poem I Sepolcri,his widelyrecognized masterpiece; here history plays a monumentalrole and it is presentednot as an investigation but as an acceptance of the past. By

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definitiona mythis to be eitheraccepted or refused: if one triesto interit is evidentthatthe elementof faithis no longer there. pretit allegorically share the The figuresof the great Italians evoked by Foscolo in I Sepolcri essence of mythicalappearances: they exist beyond investigation, they simplyare, like ancient monuments,or forcesof nature. The factthatwe are sure they have existed makes the mythpossible since it makes it believable: which also explains why modern mythologiesneed a historical background in order to survive.They are dealing witha massivepresence it into a belief. The nationis one of of history and attemptto transform these beliefs. We are close to the identificationof the split that occurs between Leopardi and Foscolo. They both think of history essentially as a mythologicalrecreation of the past, as a collective poetry of mankind. They diverge on one fundamental issue: the mythologicalrecreationis possible for Foscolo, not anymorefor Leopardi. We are not coping witha minor divergence: the entire modern culture has been severed by this and of theDiscorso contrast.At the timeof the Sepolcri Inaugurale,Foscolo of the the history of a new mythology: seems to have traced the territory of the nation. Somethingof that Italian people, supportingthe risingmyth of the French Revokind was happening all over Europe in the aftermath lution and of the Napoleonic conquests. For the moment ancient Greece (often mentioned in I Sepolcri)provides the background,waitingto enter the scene as the protagonistof a new mythologicalrebirth:the one attempted by Foscolo in his last and unfinishedpoem Le Grazie.Le Grazie, just like the paintingsof David and the sculpturesof Canova, are inspired they all share the fate of similarcontemdirectlyby hellenic mythology, poraryexperimentsin neo-classicism. There is a word that appears both in Leopardi's and Foscolo's works whichis the equivalent of whatwe call "myth":it is the term"illusions".To Foscolo illusionsappear necessary,to Leopardi foolish;thus Leopardi will to of nationalismor any other effort never accept the modern mythology create a "progressivefaith"that triesto explain the fate of mankind. a case of conIt would not be correctto assume that we are witnessing in the sense schillerian trastbetweena "sentimental" (Leopardi) and a poet "naive" one (Foscolo): the distinctionwould rather be between a sentimentalpoet (stillLeopardi) and a poet (like Foscolo) who triesveryhard to be naive and to give new life to a mythby believing in it. Leopardi is are dead and modern ones a world in which ancient myths contemplating do not provide inspiration: the above quoted paragraph declaring the of "Greek, Roman and Jewishhistory"over the national hissuperiority tories (here Leopardi uses the plural storie) mighteven be a directanswer in to Foscolo's statementabout the need to go back to the Italian storie whichis, a modern poetry.Leopardi order to create a modern mythology, accepts the role of the "sentimental"poet, the inspired philosopherwho is conscious of living in a rational civilisationwhere mythsare dead and

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historydoes not seem to make much sense. Both positions will have a futureand each will open the road for generationsto come. Another writer,Manzoni, was coping in those same years with the dialecticalrelationshipbetween mythand history. He does not attemptto recreatea classic (pagan) mythology nor to found a new mythology of the nation(although he writesa fewpatriotic is a Chrispoems): his mythology tian one. Being a believer, Manzoni would not call the Christianfaith"a myth",nonetheless his firstmajor creative effort(the Inni Sacri) is the equivalent of Foscolo's return to the classic mythin Le Grazie (the two worksbelong to the same years). The events of the Inni Sacri (evoked by reservoir Manzoni) are all taken fromthe Gospels and are the mythological of the Christian tradition.It is very revealing that the last poem of the unfinishedseries,La Pentecoste, took so many years to complete. La Pentecoste deals withthe spread of the Christianteachingand the birthof the Church as a social institution: we are here at the point of separation between Christianity as a myth (the New Testament) and the historyof Manzoni's mythologicalattemptenters a crisiswhen history Christianity. appears. Manzoni boldly accepts the challenge. After the Inni Sacri historyis a is rooted in the pervasivepresence in his work.Of the twotragediesAdelchi Middle Ages, II Contedi Carmagnolain Renaissance Italy. They both presentinsolubleconflicts of Christiancharacterscrushed by the violence that rules the world. In both cases Manzoni's conclusionsseem to be thatChristianitycannot prevail in this world: his heroes finallydie willinglyand withoutregrets.Historyis the territory that has to be crossed and finally abandoned when the promised land is near and mythis thereto directthe pilgrims. Manzoni's masterpiece, I Promessi Sposi,is a further step in thisdialectical confrontation. In his novel Manzoni attemptsno less than a reconciliation of mythand history.Staged in 17th centuryLombardy, it presents the Church as the actual winner in the midst of worldly events, largely because of the incompetenceof itsopponents,but also because of the persistentappeal of its mythological foundation. If the Church can win over society, myth can overcome history. In order to achieve this result, Manzoni was obliged to perform a continuous, subtle manipulation of the historicalmaterial he had selected, presenting it in a biased light, or simply obliterating important aspects of it. The manipulation has been well documented and it is not my purpose to deal with this part of the problem. I want to stressthat Manzoni is certainly, among the writerswe have mentioned so far, the most "historically"minded; his for history is almost a professionalone, his passion for archives curiosity and for the reconstruction of the sequence of past events is unknown to both Foscolo and Leopardi. Paradoxically enough, the crisis between mythand historywill occur again when Manzoni comes to the conclusion that it is not possible to

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overlook the claim of history to be a science; thisleads to the dismissalof the historicalnovel in the Discorso sul romanzo It is understandable storico. why Manzoni presents the crisis in the form of an opposition between historicalscruples and artisticimpulses: he cannot admit that the basic contrastis between the historian'sdesire for truthand the believer'sneed for reassurance. If Manzoni condemns the historicalnovel it might be because he realizes, half consciously,that it would be difficult to create another great novel in whichthe Church would assume such a prominent role. The historicalnovel will have a chance to survivein Italy through the substitution of the myth of patriotism forthe myth of catholicism.In modern societynationalismis a more powerfuldrive than religion; it was parso in Italy and Germany,when in the course of the 19thcentury ticularly both achieved geographicalunity.In these two countriesRomanticism they and Nationalism are entangled in a way impossible elsewhere; although the aggressiveconnotationof nationalismwill be absent from Italian culture until D'Annunzio. I willrapidlyexplore the two major achievementsin thisdirection.One is Nievo's long novel Le Confessioni di un Italiano. The idea is to conceive a historicalnarration as an autobiographical one: it is Rousseau added to mostadmired by Nievo. Followingthe long lifeof Manzoni, the twowriters the protagonistwe are broughtto witnessthe birthof a nation,and in the findsa newjustification. The mythbelongs to the present osmosis,history not to the past; whichaccounts for the optimistic, almostjubilant mood of Nievo's narration.With Nievo we are led one step further in the relationship of mythand history.Once historyis accepted as not being in contradictionwithour hopes we observe a phenomenon thatwillgrow vaster and vaster in modern civilisation,the sudden appearance of a childhood distinguishedfrom the adult world of historicalevents. The whole first (and most famous) section of Nievo's Confessioni is the memory of the lives among rural gentry protagonistas a child who, characteristically, immobilizedand secluded fromthe movementof history, as is childhood itself.In decadent literaturethis separation will be seen as an irreducible individualpast. opposition,generatingregretsand nostalgiafora mythical Nievo is stillsharingthe romanticattitudetowardthe origins:theyare the horizonof our fullfillment, a memoryand a premonitionat the same time. The second greatachievementis theStoriadellaLetteratura Italiana bythe most famous Italian critic,Francesco De Sanctis. I do not hesitateto call this work one of the major historicalnovels of 19th centuryliterature. The entiredevelopmentof Italian culturethroughoutthe centuriesis seen as a growinglivingorganismsearchingforitsmeaning and foritsnational A great Entwicklung narration,the Storiaby De Sanctis presents identity. protagonists(the great authors of Italian literature) who have both a and a historicalstatus,like the heroes of ancient epic poetry.De mythical Sanctis and Nievo have found a momentaryequilibrium between myth

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based on the patrioticenthusiasmof a young nation and on and history, of what theynarrate. the credibility Born later in Italy than in other European countries Romanticismwill last there as long as the search for national unity.In the latterpart of the and history betweenmyth a new phase of the dialecticrelationship century will take place and will find new protagonists.The only mythleft,the national one, will become more and more aggressive as if historywere to suffocateit. trying
Rutgers University