Ugo Foscolo Research Articles

Ugo Foscolo's tragic vision in Italy and England

Ugo Foscolo's tragic vision in Italy and England

888 The unknown urological disease of Ugo Foscolo and its impact to the character of his writing

888 The unknown urological disease of Ugo Foscolo and its impact to the character of his writing

Ugo Foscolo: il classicismo come lirismo

The purpose of my study is to propose a selective reading of Ugo Foscolo poetry in the light of the classical tradition. My analysis is directed to the exegesis of his best-known sonnets, Dei sepolcri, and the incomplete work, Le Grazie , while I have only marginally evaluated the ode All’amica risanata. I do not in any way claim to draw up a comprehensive compilation of all classic loans that cropped up, both linguistically and thematically, since the very first reading. I have tried, however, to build a path that realize the cultural significance of the classicistic option of the poet, pointing with punctuality the incidence of the Latin (especially Virgil, Catullus, Lucretius) and the Greek world (mostly Homer) in Foscolo poetry highlighting as in no case it is a mechanic, rhetoric and ornamental retake. I have finally promoted a hermeneutical proposal that tries to read the classicism of Foscolo as the result of his lyrical intent.

Travel, migration, exile: Garibaldi's global fame

In this article, it is argued that Garibaldi's global fame owes much to his own experiences as a migrant and exile in the Americas. Overseas, Garibaldi not only acquired several practical and political skills, he also built up an important network of friends and supporters and became a hybrid figure able to adapt his image to diverse political settings. At the same time, Garibaldi relied on the trope of exile, developed by people like Ugo Foscolo, to define his opposition to, first, Italy's Restoration governments and, after Italian unification, the new moderate liberal regime. The article also looks at Garibaldi's life on Caprera and it is further argued that here Garibaldi combined elements of his previous experiences to fashion a role for himself as a ‘foreigner in Italy’. Garibaldi was a symbol of many worlds as well as a hero of two and it is precisely this hybrid nature of his appeal that can explain his global popularity.

Le «genti che l’Anglia vendé». Diagnosi della crisi ionica tra Foscolo e Mustoxidi.

This article presents a detailed analysis of the different reactions expressed by Ugo Foscolo and Andrea Mustoxidi with regard to the Ionian crisis and the dramatic effects it had on the small town of Parga following the end of Napoleonic supremacy on the European continent. Foscolo’s article On Parga and his subsequently abandoned work on the vicissitudes of the residents of Parga are both examined, together with Mustoxidi’s unsigned Exposé, which too was written as the events were unfolding and as Mustoxidi became closer and closer to Giovanni Capodistria, the future first president of Greece. Despite the differences articulated in their works, the positions held by Foscolo and Mustoxidi actually converge on one key element, the concept of ius gentium; in fact, in On Parga Foscolo offers a broader reflection on this theme than he did ten years earlier in the oration he gave at Pavia entitled Sull’origine e i limiti della giustizia [On the origins and limits of justice]. Its historical perspective is here more clearly defined, taking into account the international balance of power and the elusive aim for the happiness of populations.

Das Gespräch in seiner Inszenierung und Darstellung. Emotionales Sprechen im Briefroman zwischen rhetorischer und poetischer Praxis

AbstractWith regard to the historical »quarrel« between rhetoric and poetic concepts, this essay, firstly, reports the linguistic, literary and social innovations in letter-writing during the 18th-century. The letter writer’s fictitious role-play between the addressee and himself leads to a detailed description of body language as to further emotionalizing strategies. Thus, literary concepts linked to the letter are in demand which bring the epistolary novel into play. In a comparison of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1787) and Ugo Foscolo’s Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1817) it will be shown that the staged conversation between letter writer and addressee and the represented conversation between the letter writer and another character follow the same conversational attitude for each novel: either the principle of sympathy or the principle of divergence. This can be partly explained by a different historical development of aesthetic concepts in Germany and Italy. Besides, the different way of communicating emotions can be also attributed to the epistemic presuppositions: a mimesis which refers to naturalness is in opposition with an autonomous mimesis that breaks with the former tradition.

The relationship between writer and translator: the case history of Ugo Foscolo

Preview this article: The relationship between writer and translator: the case history of Ugo Foscolo, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/babel.59.1.05cal-1.gif

A false edition of the Comedy, and its truth

Giuseppe Mazzini announced, but never actually wrote, a biography of the Italian patriot and poet, Ugo Foscolo. This article recounts Foscolo’s last years in exile by means of available documents in order to explain why Mazzini renounced the writing of Foscolo’s biography and decided instead to complete and publish, under the latter’s name, an edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy that Foscolo had merely begun to sketch.

Carlo Placci and Vernon Lee: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Cosmopolitanism in Fin-de-Siècle Florence

In the eighteenth century a distinct brand of Anglomania started to flourish in Italian literary circles, soon mirrored by a growing interest in Britain for all things Italian.1 Suffice to mention, as examples of these early, sporadic connections, Melchiorre Cesarotti’s acclaimed Italian translation of Ossian’s poems (1782) and, later, the exiled Ugo Foscolo’s essays on Dante and Petrarch published in the prestigious Edinburgh Review (1818). During the following decades a more sustained interest in Italian culture as a whole – as well as in the country’s political changes taking place through the Risorgimento – fostered more regular exchange between the Italian peninsula and Britain.2 Amongst the British elites, in particular, the intellectual, theorist and activist Giuseppe Mazzini and the writer Alessandro Manzoni rapidly achieved fame as iconic figures symbolizing Italy’s process of political liberation from foreign oppressors. In the years that followed the Italian unification, the city of Florence gained prominence as the geographical fulcrum of an activity of cosmopolitan cultural exchange between British and Italian intellectuals that had not had notable precedent in the history of the two nations. Late nineteenth-century Florence nurtured what has been described as ‘a distinct fin-de-siecle anglomania’:3 it was the Italian city where English culture circulated most extensively in its fashionable literary salons and lively publishing scene. These modern forms of transnational interactions (widespread in but not limited to Anglo-Italian circles) did not remain isolated, but rather played an important role in shaping the international literary profile of the Tuscan centre. This article discusses one of these cosmopolitan cultural exchanges between two leading figures in the fin-de-siecle Florentine Anglo-Italian

Freedom of the press, public opinion and liberalism in the Risorgimento

The article discusses the way in which liberals conceived the relationship between freedom of the press, political liberty, and the Risorgimento. It argues that while all Risorgimento patriots advocated the introduction of freedom of the press, and saw it as a precondition for the success of their programmes, they also held different views on its applicability. While early liberals like Giuseppe Pecchio and Ugo Foscolo, in tune with the ideas of Benjamin Constant, were in favour of the largest possible freedom of speech, Italian moderates were less convinced of the benefits of an unchecked proliferation of political media. In line with the ideas of the French doctrinaires, Cesare Balbo, Vincenzo Gioberti, Terenzio Mamiani and Carlo Farini insisted on the pedagogical role of the press, and on the need to prevent it from becoming an instrument in the hands of democratic leaders and demagogues, one that would lead either to the proliferation of factions or to the establishment of a dictatorship of the majority.

Difetti di disegno: «Sul nuovo teatro di Como» di Ugo Foscolo

This essay explores possible reasons for why Ugo Foscolo would have written the 1813 architectural article Sul nuovo teatro di Como. The author offers a literary-biographical explanation for his until-now inexplicable personal interest in Como’s new theatre. The essay brings to light the direct linguistic connection between Sul nuovo teatro di Como and Urbano Lampredi’s criticisms of Foscolo’s second tragedy Ajace, in which the notorious critic repeatedly and specifically attacked Foscolo’s “disegno” of the tragedy. Foscolo’s emphasis on this very same term in Sul nuovo teatro di Como therefore, should be interpreted as a blatant echo of and a direct response to Lampredi’s criticism of Ajace.

Tribute to Pasquale Montagna, 1950–2010

Tribute to Pasquale Montagna, 1950–2010

Tribute to Pasquale Montagna, 1950–2010

Tribute to Pasquale Montagna, 1950–2010

A crítica literária na Itália napoleônica: avaliações e contribuições de Ugo Foscolo

This paper analyses the ideas of the Italian author Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) about the literary criticism contained in his essays about literature, and demonstrates how the metodology proposed by the author contributed to the renewal of the literary criticism in Italy between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Romanticism displaced and placeless

Displacement, deriving mainly from the circumstances of the first modern world war, is an abiding notion in European Romanticism. It can take the form of a fragmentation of psychic identity through loss of nationality, as we find in Ugo Foscolo, or of the exile’s split between nationalist identities, as exemplified by Germaine de Staël’s Corinne. But in the literature of Great Britain one also finds a powerful resonance from concrete historical circumstances: the huge numbers of Britons involved in military deployment overseas, whose effect is a leitmotif in Wordsworth’s early writing, are offset in complicated ways by the highly visible presence of displaced French émigrés in England, tellingly represented by Charlotte Smith. On the other hand, this endemic sense of being uprooted allows for a kind of double irony, as writers in their reaction to the turmoil of displacement attempt to find a way of transcending nationalist strictures. For women, without political standing, this can mean liberation into thinking of themselves as “citizens of the world.” In the case of already empowered men, we find Shelley attempting to create a mythos around a circle of creative geniuses who inspire one another’s art in “islanded” circumstances. Even more radically, Byron attempts to cast himself within an existential liberation, exploring wandering as the very mode of existence.

Persistent pre-sleep behaviour and paroxysmal sweating with a stab lodged in the head

Behavioural, autonomic and sleep disorders may follow traumatic brain injury [1–4]. We report a patient in whom a stab lodged into the brain was associated to chronic headache, excessive daytime sleepiness and recurrent episodes of asymmetric excessive sweating and piloerection. A 26-year-old man received a stab in the forehead during an assault about which he was amnesic. Admitted to an emergency wait, he was however discharged with the stab still lodged in his head. One year later he come to our attention complaining of daily headache, tiredness and constant desire to sleep. According to his wife, his initiative was decreased and he often yawned, stretched and assumed a sleeping posture. However, when given active tasks, he was able to perform them correctly. In addition he had become quiet, ‘‘easy-going’’, kind and overtly religious. Finally, he complained of paroxysmal excessive sweating triggered by exposure to hot temperatures, and rarely by apprehension, when he broke out in profuse sweating and piloerection limited to the left side of the body. Hot-induced excessive sweating was preceded by a feeling of ‘‘inner heat’’, and was a source of considerable fatigue and embarrassment. General examination revealed a linear scar in the left forehead. Body temperature was 36.6 C, heart rate 65 beats/ min and regular, respiratory rate 14 breaths/min, and blood pressure 125/75 mm Hg. Epworth Sleepiness Scale score, for measuring subjective daytime sleepiness, was 12 (n.v. B 10) [5]. Skull X-ray showed a metal stab which from the left frontal region projected just right of the midline into the suprasellar region (Fig. 1a). Marked beam hardening artefacts due to the metal blade hindered brain evaluation with cranial CT. Digital subtraction arteriography revealed that the tip of the stab was located just in front of the distal portion of the A1 segment of the anterior right cerebral artery beside the anterior communicating artery (Fig. 1b). This suggested that the distal portion of the blade had crossed the left diencephalon and reached the right hypothalamus. Neuropsychological evaluation [Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III score: 89 (lower limits); Wisconsin Card Sorting Test score: 94 mistakes on 128 (no category was completed); Rey’s 15 Words Immediate Recall Test score: 49/75 (corrected: 44.55/75); Rey’s Words Delayed Recall Test score: 4/15 (corrected: 2.25/15); Rey’s Complex Figure Copy Test score: 36/36 (corrected: 37.03); Rey’s Complex Figure Reproduction Test score: 14/36 (corrected: 11.97/36)] revealed impairment of long-memory and executive functions. Nocturnal sleep was unremarkable, but upon multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) he fell asleep during each session, with a mean sleep latency of 8min 30sec and without sleep onset REM periods. However, between every MSLT session, the patient constantly held a pre-sleep behaviour, all the time lying in bed or sitting on a chair, repetitively yawning and often with closed eyes. However, he could promptly resume full-wake behaviour upon stimulations. Assessment of body core temperature M. Fabbri R. Vetrugno (&) P. Montagna Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Bologna, Via Ugo Foscolo 7, 40123 Bologna, Italy e-mail: roberto.vetrugno@unibo.it

A case of fatal familial insomnia in Africa

Sir, Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is an autosomal dominant prion disease linked to the D178N/129M haplotype in the prion protein gene, PRNP, and is the third in frequency among the genetic transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) [4]. FFI is characterized by sleep and behavioral disturbances, autonomic alterations, ataxia, pyramidal signs, myoclonus, and late development of mental deterioration. FFI has been reported in families from Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, the UK, France, Finland, the United States, Australia, Japan, and China [4, 7]. Here we describe the occurrence of the disease in the African Continent. A 45-year-old man, born in Morocco (Greater Casablanca region), was admitted after a five-month history of diplopia, and worsening unsteady gait. When specifically asked he reported a nine-month history of insomnia with total sleep time decreasing from 7 to 5 h per night. In addition he had developed excessive sweating, erectile dysfunction, and a ‘‘gasping’’ breathing. He reported that a similar disease was present in several members of in his family (Fig. 1, genealogical tree) who died after about one year of a progressive neurological illness. He had directly observed the evolution of the disease of his mother and three uncles (III-3, III-1, III-2, III-7 in the figure) which was characterized by disequilibrium, diplopia, speech disorder, insomnia, and late cognitive deterioration. He also gave us clinical records of a cousin (IV-9 in the figure) who had suffered from the ‘‘disease of the family’’. Neurological examination at admission showed horizontal and vertical saccades of the eyes in primary position with horizontal and vertical diplopia. The finger-to-nose test showed mild dysmetria with irregular tremor. Spontaneous and evoked myoclonus was evident, either segmental or massive, at the extremities and at the trunk; tendon reflexes were brisk. Gait was severely ataxic with retropulsion and with a trunk-extremity dissinergy. Neuropsycological examination showed only a mild deficit in long-term verbal memory. EEG showed no periodic discharges. In the CSF the 14-3-3 protein was absent and total tau protein was 120 pg/ml (normal values:141 ± 107 pg/ml). Four consecutive 24-h polysomnographic recordings (PSG) revealed marked reduction of total sleep time (range: 229–340 min; NV: 440 min) and total nocturnal sleep time (range: 123–290 min; NV: 420 min). Sleep efficiency ranged between 26 and 60% (NV [ 85%). Sleep was fragmented by frequent and sometimes prolonged periods of wakefulness. All sleep phases were represented but typical sleep figures (K-complexes and sleep spindles) were markedly reduced. REM sleep was characterized by physiological muscle sleep atonia; both during the night and during daytime naps REM sleep latency was abnormally short. These features were consistent with previous reports on FFI [5]. Brain MRI with diffusion weighted imaging and with spectroscopy, was reported as normal. Analyses of DNA from peripheral leukocytes, revealed the D178N mutation and methionine/valine heterozygosity at the polymorphic 129 codon of the PRNP gene. The mutated allele had methionine at codon 129 and an R3-R4 24 bp deletion. E. Baldin S. Capellari F. Provini P. Corrado R. Liguori P. Parchi P. Montagna P. Cortelli (&) Department of Neurological Science, University of Bologna, via Ugo Foscolo, 7, Bologna, Italy e-mail: pietro.cortelli@unibo.it

Theatrical Spinning: Ricciarda and Ugo Foscolo's Campaign For Fame

Ugo Foscolo's name does not make today's short list of Italy's great dramatists. Contemporary Italianists often overlook Foscolo's contribu? tion to the Italian theatrical tradition, despite the fact that he wrote three neoclassical, or Alfierian, tragedies: Tieste (Venice, 1797), Ajace (Milan, 1811), and Ricciarda (Bologna, 1813).2 The oversight is with good reason; these works are not particularly impressive, and they were not well received by Italian audiences.3 Yet despite the poor

Two Sonnets by Ugo Foscolo

Two Sonnets by Ugo Foscolo

Translator’s Introduction: “Italy in Translation”

The publication of Germaine de Stall's l'Esprit des traductions in Milanese journal Biblioteca italiana in 1816 was most dramatic event in saga of Romanticism. The essay exhorts Italians to free themselves from their pedantic isolation by translating northern European literature, specifically the new poetry of Germans and English. In de Stall's view, cultural exchange of this nature would connect Italians to intellectual currents that, throughout Europe, were transforming dated mythological and neoclassical forms treasured in Italy into a suitably Romantic idiom. De Stall's contribution drew responses from principal voices in so-called Question of Romanticism, including Giovanni Berchet, Pietro Borsieri, Ludovico Di Breme, and a precocious adolescent from Recanati who became modern Italy's most acclaimed lyric poet, Giacomo Leopardi. The subsequent years of national and cultural soul-searching occasioned by this quest to define Italian brand of proved to be as energetic as they were inconclusive. Summarizing debates stimulated by de Stael, Alessandro Manzoni writes that, though word Romanticism came to mean an unimaginable muddle of witches, specters, systemic disorder, [...] and abuses of common sense, ideas suggested became no less than basis of nineteenth-century European aesthetic theory. (1) It is tempting to view cataclysmic effect of de Stall's essay as further proof of a French hegemony over thought stretching back to Enlightenment, which in Italy was a tenuous, fragmented affair limited mostly to Milan and philosophes associated with journal Caffe (1764-66). Such interpretation, however, does justice neither to de Stall's intentions nor context in which her work appeared. In reality, both de Stall and Italians were victims of Napoleonic upheavals, and she had no wish to impose a French accent on cultural expression. France had controlled parts of Peninsula as early as Norman stronghold on southern Italy in eleventh century, and Napoleon's invasion in late 1790s had a notorious precedent in many minds: French occupation of Italy after Charles VIII's incursion in 1494. Politically, Napoleonic presence in Italy combined with other foreign occupiers, especially Austria, to keep Italy a mere geographical expression (Metternich) that did not achieve national unity--and then a most fragile one--until 1861. The opening sentence of a popular novel of age, Ugo Foscolo's Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis (Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, 1798), sums up desperation felt by many of Italy's public intellectuals, a great number of whom (including Foscolo) faced imprisonment or exile for their controversial writings. Il sacrificio della patria nostra e consumato (The sacrifice of our nation is complete [11 October 1797]), fictional Ortis writes to his friend Lorenzo after learning of Napoleon's ceding control of Venice to Austrians in Treaty of Campoformio in 1797. (2) The surprise and anger Italians felt after Campoformio stemmed from misplaced hopes they had placed in Napoleon, who had led many to believe that he would be great liberator. Like much other contemporary literature, Foscolo's novel oscillates between, on one hand, a burning desire to forge nation free from foreign yoke; and, on other, anxious sense that, without these foreigners, Italians would struggle to define their identity and run their country. This unease reached its apotheosis in celebrated remark by patriot Massimo d'Azeglio just after unification: We have created Italy, now we must create Italians. Perhaps nowhere is quest for a national culture responsive to progressive international trends--yet also respectful of Italy's centuries' worth of creative, linguistic, and scientific traditions--more prominent than in heated polemics inspired by publication of l'Esprit des traductions by de Stall. …