Research Catalog

Title

The last cross : a history of the suicide theme in Italian literature / Daniel Rolfs.

Author

Rolfs, Daniel

Publication

• Ravenna [Italy] : Longo, 1981.
• ©1981

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

142 pages; 22 cm.

Summary

"This study, whose title draws from an aria in Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda, in which the heroine sings of voluntary death as "the last cross" to be born in her life's journey ("Suicidio!.. Ultima croce/Del mio cammin"), offers an original history of a timehonored and intriguing theme as it recurs throughout the whole of a major European literature. Beginning with an introductory discussion which provides the philosophical and theological background necessary for an appreciation of the widely divergent ways in which the awesome act of self-destruction has been viewed in both antiquity and the Christian era, the Author proceeds to explore its rich and varied portrayals in the Italian literary tradition from the Middle Ages to our own time. Written so as to be accessible to a broad readership, this history will prove of interest to Italianists of all specializations, as well as to students and scholars of literature in general."--Publisher description.

Series Statement

L'Interprete ; 26

Uniform Title

Interprete ; 26.

Subject

• Italian literature > Themes, motives
• Suicide in literature
• Literatur
• Suizid
• Littérature italienne
• Suicide
• 50000 av. J.-C.-20e siècle
• origines
• Italien

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Preface and acknowledgments -- I. Introduction: The Western heritage. Suicide in the Classical world ; The Classical versus the Christian perspective ; The Catholic prohibition ; Dante's interpretation of suicide -- II. The Middle Ages: The emergence of the suicide theme in Italian literature. Cielo D'Alcamo ; Petrarch ; Boccacdo -- III. THe early and high Renaissance: Expansion and further development. The pastoral setting ; The novella ; The chivalric poem: Boiardo ; The chivalric poem: Ariosto -- IV. From the counter-reformation era to the age of enlightenment: Responses to repression. Matteo Bandello ; Giambattista Giraldi Cintio ; Torquato Tasso ; Lachrymose comedy -- V. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: The Classical hero and the Romantic malaise. The Classical hero in Alfierian tragedy ; The Classical hero after Alfieri ; The decline of the Classical hero ; The Romantic malaise ; The Werther figure in Italian poetry and prose ; Foscolo's sonnets ; Leopardi -- VI. The latter nineteenth century: The Romantic suicide in continuation and decline. Grand opera ; Drama, the novel and poetry ; The ascendency of realism -- VII. The twentieth century: Beyond sin and glory. Pirandello ; Svevo ; Pavese ; Moravia ; Closing observations -- Index.

LCCN

80211932

OCLC

• ocm11315957
• 11315957
• SCSB-9621771

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library