Il sogno del Risorgimento di Antonio Delfini

Antonio Delfini’s pamphlet Modena 1831 città della Chartreuse focuses on the quality of realism expressed by Stendhal in La chartreuse de Parme. Delfini builds a mocking essay to confront the scholarly criticism represented by Luigi Foscolo Benedetto. He aims to demonstrate that Stendhal’s Parma is not Parma but Modena, actually made of Stendhal’s different memories and passionate feelings about Italy. According to Delfini, the fictional city evokes and dissimulates, during the post-Napoleonic Restoration, the tragic revolution of the Modenese patriot Ciro Menotti. For Delfini that is a matter of family, because his ancestors were involved in such a political adventure, on the side of Risorgimento. As a consequence, that is an issue concerning Delfini’s literary self-construction. Stendhal’s novel is a polysemous screen on which its author as a fantastic narrator and Delfini himself as a dreaming essayist project their desires and ideals in opposition to their conformist historical contexts.