Malombra di Antonio Fogazzaro: Il romanzo gotico all’italiana e la nuova spiritualità

Abstract

The article develops the theme of the Italian novel of the age of decadentism, Antonio Fogazzaro’s Malombra. The text demonstrates the writer’s approach to the possible evolution of national literature. The author proposes following the model of the English bourgeois novel that could best correspond to the situation and needs of Italian society in the second half of the 19th century. Another factor that distinguishes Malombra from the background of literary production in Italy in this period is the author’s visible interest in the issues of mysticism and spiritualism, due to his reflection on the place of believers in the increasingly industrialised, secularised world, but at the same time in search of spiritual values. All this led Fogazzaro to write a particular form of gothic novel all’italiana, in which contemporary discoveries in the field of psychiatry are also reflected. In my analysis, I will introduce the historical context of the work, present Fogazzaro’s ideas, approach the plot of the novel and, finally, study it from the point of view of the stylistic and thematic innovations proposed by the author.