The ecstatic dis-order: a cultural and literary investigation of post-unification Italy (1861-1915)

Thesis

This thesis explores the way the notion of ecstasy permeated Italian culture between 1861 and 1915 in a variety of different discourses, and, specifically, those related to religion, science, and ‘occulture’. Focusing on mystical ecstasies, magnetic ecstasies, mediumistic trances, hypnotic trances, and hysterical extases, I show how ecstatic subjects were often regarded as ab-normal, disorderly individuals needing to be overseen, governed, or repressed, consequently unveiling the power dynamics informing the relationship between ecstatics and normative agencies. I also show how some of the most significant authors of Italian post-Unification literature, i.e., Matilde Serao, Antonio Fogazzaro, Luigi Capuana, and Gabriele D’Annunzio, delivered literary depictions of ecstasy, finding in the latter a fundamental trope to explore the disorderly, inner tensions of the self, partly anticipating Freud’s theorisations on the unconscious and the death drive. My research is underpinned by the theoretical framing of this double ‘ecstatic dis-order’, unveiling a dialectical tension between ecstatic, disorderly drives and normative, orderly ones, against the backdrop of the development of modern Italy and the modern Italian self.

Authors: Clemente, F

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-9rgpjqd95
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Antonio Fogazzaro; twentieth century; Italian literature; Italian culture; ecstasy; religion; Gabriele D'Annunzio; nineteenth century; Luigi Capuana; occult; Matilde Serao; science
• Subjects: Literature; Italian literature; Italian culture; Culture