This thesis aims to investigate the experience of travel and the representation of Italy in the works of British women writers of the nineteenth century. A close reading of literary texts by Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot will help establish a connection between their journey to the Peninsula and their development as women and writers. The separation from their homeland and the confrontation with Italian culture were indeed pivotal for Shelley, Barrett Browning and Eliot in gaining a new perspective on their native land, breaking free from the rigid codes of behaviour expected from English ladies, and acquiring the authority and the confidence to write. It will be shown that in contrast to other Grand Tourists, Shelley, Barrett Browning and Eliot went beyond a mere description of Italian beauties and moved into the realm of social commentary. By avoiding stereotypical representations of the Peninsula and engaging in an authentic dialogue with the country and its inhabitants, they broadened the scope of travel narrative and explored matters of public importance to provide insight into national ideologies, while expanding the boundaries of the female sphere. The research will reveal that the experience of travel was not only essential in their journey to become professional writers, but it also increased their desire for the liberation of Italy as well as their own. / Questa tesi si propone di indagare l’esperienza di viaggio e la rappresentazione dell’Italia nelle opere delle scrittrici britanniche del XIX secolo. L’analisi di alcuni testi letterari di Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning e George Eliot aiuterà a stabilire una connessione tra il soggiorno nella Penisola ed il loro percorso individuale di emancipazione come donne e come artiste. Il distacco dalla madrepatria e il confronto con la cultura italiana furono infatti determinanti per Shelley, Barrett Browning ed Eliot per acquisire una nuova prospettiva sulla loro terra d’origine, per liberarsi dai rigidi codici di comportamento che contrassegnavano la vita delle donne in Gran Bretagna e per acquisire l’autorità necessaria per scrivere. Verrà dimostrato che, a differenza di altri viaggiatori del Grand Tour, Shelley, Barrett Browning ed Eliot andarono oltre la mera descrizione delle bellezze italiane, soffermandosi su temi di carattere sociale e politico. Evitando rappresentazioni stereotipate della Penisola e impegnandosi in un dialogo autentico con il Paese e i suoi abitanti, esse contribuirono ad espandere i confini della narrativa di viaggio fino ad esplorare questioni di importanza pubblica in linea con le emergenti ideologie nazionali e, allo stesso tempo, ad oltrepassare i confini della sfera femminile. La ricerca rivelerà che l’esperienza del viaggio non fu solo essenziale nel loro percorso per diventare scrittrici, ma contribuì ad accrescere il desiderio di liberazione per loro stesse e per l’Italia.

Cette thèse s'attache à analyser les ballets et les opéras exotiques représentés sur la scène du Teatro alla Scala, de la création du théâtre, en 1778, à sa réouverture, en 1946, période au cours de laquelle plus de trois cents œuvres mettant en scène l'ailleurs non européen et ses habitants furent données à voir au public du plus prestigieux théâtre lyrique milanais. L'approche des représentations de l'autre non européen, retenue ici, accorde une très large place aux livrets, en même temps qu'elle s'articule à la réception des œuvres dans la presse, afin de pouvoir saisir un sens public de ces représentations. Après avoir, dans un premier temps, dressé un panorama des lieux et des thèmes exotiques mis en scène, où dominent un Orient tout à la fois polymorphe et placé sous le signe de la répétition, ainsi que les mises en scène de la découverte et de la conquête du continent américain, cette recherche aborde la question de la création, librettistique et scénique, d'une altérité non européenne, qui apparaît désirée autant qu'elle est moquée et critiquée. Enfin, dans un troisième temps, cette étude tente de mettre au jour les usages politiques des œuvres exotiques, que celles-ci soient utilisées pour contester le pouvoir en place ou qu'au contraire ce dernier fasse d'elles des véhicules idéologiques. / This thesis analyses the exotic operas and ballets staged at the Teatro alla Scala from its inauguration in 1778 to its reopening in 1946 – a period during which the audiences of Milan's most prestigious opera house were offered more than three hundred productions representing non-European countries and their inhabitants. My approach integrates close readings of the librettos with a focus on the reception of these works in the press, in order to understand how these representations made sense to the public. The first part presents an overview of the exotic places and themes that were staged. A polymorphous but repetitive Orient and the discovery and conquest of the New World predominate. The second part focuses on the librettos and staging in order to address the construction of a non-European alterity that is desired as much as it is denigrated. Finally, the third part brings to light the political usages of these exotic works, asking whether they served to avoid censorship and contest the authorities or, on the contrary, functioned as vehicles for the ideology of the regimes of their time.

Giovita Scalvini, (Brescia 1791- 1843), homme de lettres et patriote du Risorgimento italien, en 1806 commenca à écrire des vers, des ébauches de romans, des pensées à caractère moral et civil. En 1816, il se transféra à Milan pour collaborer à la Biblioteca italiana, mais il sympathisa avec les romantiques du Conciliatore et les événements politiques de son temps, il est donc arrêté à la suite des mouvements insurrectionnels. Il passe neuf mois en prison ; puis s’exile en Suisse, à Londres et à Paris. Enfin, en Belgique, il traduit la première traduction (partielle) en langue italienne du Faust de Goethe. Après l'amnistie de 1838, il rentre à Brescia où il meurt. Son œuvre critique (Considerazioni Morali sull’Ortis (1817), Dei Promessi Sposi (1831) le place parmi les principaux critiques italiens du début du XIXe siècle. Un témoignage sous forme imprimée est parvenu jusqu’à nous grâce à Niccolò Tommaseo, qui a accepté l’invitation du testament de Scalvini où celui-ci lui confiait ses propres écrits inédits et l’autorisait à choisir et à publier ce qui, à son avis, valait la peine d’être connu. Le but principal de cette thèse est de présenter trois manuscrits inédits et ses Mémoires, en cherchant à encadrer le contexte culturel où les écrits se sont formés ainsi que leur transmission. La partie générale terminée, on a reproduit les manuscrits ainsi que leurs notes de présentation, dans cet ordre : «Abbozzi di romanzi. II», apographe ; «Pensieri vari», apographe ; un manuscrit autographe relié, qui contient plusieurs citations tirées de différents auteurs de littérature italienne et latine ; enfin la transcription de ses Mémoires et la conclusion terminent cette recherche. / Giovita Scalvini (Brescia 1791-1843), man of letters, and patriot of Risorgimento in 1806 began to write verses, drafts of novels, moral and civil thoughts. From 1816 he collaborated in Milan to the periodic Biblioteca italiana; but he soon sympathized with the romantics of Il Conciliatore. Involved in the political events of his time, he was arrested as part of insurrectional movements. After nine months in prison he went into exile in Switzerland, London and Paris. Finally in Belgium, he translated, for the first time in Italian, the first part of Goethe's Faust (1835). After the amnesty of 1838, he returned to Brescia where he died. His critical works (Dei Promessi Sposi, Lugano (1831), Considerazioni Morali sull'Ortis (1817), place him among the leading italian critics of the beginning of the19th century. There is therefore a huge gap between what Scalvini decided to publish and what remained in his drawers. A printed form of testimony has come down to us thanks to Niccolò Tommaseo, who accepted the invitation expressed in Scalvini's testament: he left his own unpublished writings and allowed him to choose and publish what, in his opinion, was worth to be known. The main purpose of this thesis is to present three unpublished manuscripts, and his Memories, trying to frame the cultural context where the works formed. The general part completed, the manuscripts as well as their presentation notes are reproduced in this order: "Abbozzi di romanzi. II", apographe, "Pensieri vari", apographe; a hardback autographed that contains several latin and italian litterary quotes. Finally, an annotated transcription of his Memories and the conclusion complete this research work

La thèse étudie les répercussions de l’unification italienne sur le catholicisme français de 1856 à 1871. Alors que les catholiques avaient été jusque-là un des piliers du régime impérial, l’appui donné par Napoléon III au mouvement national italien mit un terme à cette situation. Parce qu’ils remettaient en cause le pouvoir temporel du pape, les événements italiens donnèrent lieu à une vaste mobilisation des fidèles. Tandis que cette mobilisation a longtemps été analysée par les historiens comme un mouvement ayant surtout impliqué le clergé et les notables légitimistes, ce travail montre qu’il s’agit en réalité d’un mouvement de masse. La thèse met en évidence les conséquences d’une telle mobilisation dans le domaine politique et dans le domaine religieux. Elle montre l’assimilation par les catholiques des formes classiques de la lutte politique moderne, utilisées à gauche comme à droite, et l’élaboration de moyens d’action plus originaux, fondés sur la politisation de la parole et de la pratique religieuses. Elle replace la mobilisation dans le cadre de la stratégie diplomatique du Saint-Siège, visant à s’appuyer sur les fidèles, en analysant les engagements dans l’armée pontificale et la mobilisation financière des catholiques. Enfin, l’étude met en évidence l’influence de la question romaine sur plusieurs mutations touchant le catholicisme depuis le début du siècle, qu’il s’agisse du mouvement vers Rome, de l’affirmation du catholicisme intransigeant ou de la place nouvelle des laïcs au sein de l’Église. C’est, en somme, une voie de modernisation alternative, construite en opposition aux principes de la modernité libérale, que cette étude entend mettre en évidence. / This dissertation examines the impacts of Italian unification on French Catholicism from 1856 to 1871. Whilst Catholics had until then been one of the imperial regime pillars, the support given by Napoleon III to the Italian national movement put an end to this situation. Because they were challenging the Pope's temporal power, the Italian events gave rise to a vast mobilisation of the faithful. Whilst this mobilisation has long been analysed by historians as a movement that mainly involved the clergy and the legitimist notables, this work shows it was actually a mass movement. This dissertation highlights the consequences of such involvement in political as well as religious matters. It shows the assimilation by Catholics of the classical means of modern political fight, used by the left as well as the right wing, and the elaboration of more original means, based on the politicisation of religious speech and practice. It replaces the mobilisation in the context of the Holy See’s diplomatic strategy, aimed at relying on the faithful. To do so, the dissertation analyses the enlistments in the pontifical army and the financial support provided by Catholics. Finally, the study shows the influence of the Roman question on several changes affecting Catholicism since the beginning of the century: the movement towards Rome, the affirmation of uncompromising Catholicism as well as the new status of the laity in the Church. It is, in short, a way of alternative modernisation, built in opposition to the principles of liberal modernity, that this study intends to bring to light.

La thèse cherche à restituer les mécanismes de la politisation libérale dans la partie continentale du royaume des Deux-Siciles, de l’effondrement de l’Empire napoléonien en 1815 au moment où se précisent les voies de l’annexion du royaume méridional dans l’Italie en construction, au milieu des années 1850. Le croisement de la documentation administrative, des écrits personnels des libéraux et de leurs productions politiques permet d’identifier ce courant avec l’opposition patriotique à la monarchie restaurée des Bourbons. Il prend la forme d’une société d’opposants réticulée et disparate, davantage anti-absolutiste qu’elle n’est idéologiquement libérale, qui s’est appuyée sur les pratiques politiques locales pour contester le pouvoir centralisé mis en place par la monarchie française d’occupation (1806-1815) et maintenu par Ferdinand IV de Bourbon après 1815. À partir de cinq observatoires régionaux (la capitale, les deux Principats Citérieur et Ultérieur et les provinces calabraises de Cosenza et de Reggio), choisis pour leur représentativité au regard des structures politiques du royaume, cette thèse veut mettre en évidence les structures et les rythmes de la politisation libérale sur le temps long de la période pré-unitaire, par-delà les seules révolutions de 1820-1821 et de 1848 plus particulièrement étudiées par l’historiographie. À travers un parcours chronologique, on interrogera l’articulation du courant libéral napolitain avec le « libéralisme » qui se structure au même moment dans l’espace plus large des révolutions occidentales, la permanence du personnel politique, la tension entre espaces politiques locaux et nationaux et l’appropriation complexe de la construction nationale italienne, qui se précise au lendemain des révolutions de 1848. / The thesis aims to study the mechanisms of liberal politicization in the continental part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, from the collapsing of the Napoleonic Empire in 1815 to the acceleration of the Italian national construction in the middle 1850s. By crossing the administrative documentation, the liberals’ personal writings and their political productions, this political movement can be identificated with the patriotical opposition to the restored monarchy of the Bourbons. It constitutes a reticulated and disparate society of opponents, more anti-absolutist than ideologically liberal, who used to lean on local political practises to contest the centralized power instituted by the French occupation monarchy (1806-1815) and maintained by Ferdinand IV after 1815. On the basis of five regional observatories (the capital, the two Citerior and Ulterior Principates and the Calabrian provinces of Cosenza and Reggio), chosen for their representativity towards the political structures of the kingdom, the thesis wants to enlighten the structures and the rhythms of liberal politicization in the long period of the lungo Risorgimento, beyond the two revolutions of 1820-1821 and 1848 particularly studied by historiography. Through a chronological approach, we will question the links between the Neapolitan liberal movement with the European forms of « liberalism », the permanence of political actors, the tension between local and national political spaces and the difficult appropriation of the Italian national construction, which becomes more precise after the 1848 revolutions. / La tesi mette al centro della sua riflessione i meccanismi della politicizzazione liberale nella parte continentale del Regno delle Due Sicilie, dalla caduta dell’Impero napoleonico nel 1815 al momento in cui si precisano le modalità di annessione del regno meridionale all’Italia in costruzione, a partire dal 1850. Il confronto tra la documentazione amministrativa, gli scritti personali dei liberali e le loro produzioni politiche permette di identificare questo movimento politico come l’opposizione patriottica alla monarchia restaurata dei Borboni. Esso si presenta inoltre come una società di oppositori, ramificata e diffusa su tutto il territorio del Regno, più di matrice anti-assolutista che ideologicamente liberale, che si è affidata alle pratiche politiche locali per contestare il potere centralizzato della monarchia francese durante il Decennio (1806-1815) e, dopo il 1815, di Ferdinando IV di Borbone al momento del suo ritorno sul trono di Napoli. Concentrandosi su cinque spazi geografici ben definiti (la capitale, i due Principati Citra e Ultra e le provincie calabrese di Cosenza e di Reggio), scelti per la loro rappresentatività rispetto alle strutture politiche del regno, la tesi di dottorato vuole studiare le strutture e i ritmi della politicizzazione liberale sul lungo periodo del Risorgimento preunitario, oltre alle rivoluzioni del 1820-1821 e del 1848, ampiamente analizzate dalla storiografia. Utilizzando un approccio cronologico, si propone infine una riflessione sul movimento liberale napoletano in comparazione al « liberalismo » risultato delle altre rivoluzioni occidentali, sulla permanenza del personale politico, sulla tensione tra gli spazi politici locali e nazionali e sulla difficile appropriazione della costruzione nazionale italiana che si definisce all’indomani del 1848.Parole chiave : politicizzazione ; rivoluzione ;

L’objectif général de la thèse est de reconstruire et de périodiser les processus de représentation du brigandage italien à l’époque du Risorgimento, en croisant l’analyse avec le vaste panorama de l’imaginaire social relatif aux identités criminelles du XIXe siècle. La thèse possède une structure de type chronologique, bien que j’aie identifié trois noyaux thématiques fondamentaux, évoqués dans le sous-titre : crime, littérature et politique. Mon hypothèse est que la chronologie relative à l’histoire de l’imaginaire du brigandage italien (et en particulier méridional : Rome et Naples), est dictée par l’interaction entre la construction socio-culturelle de l’identité criminelle, le discours de nature littéraire et les dynamiques du conflit politique lié au processus de l’unification italienne. De telles interactions mettent continuellement en contact les représentations du brigand avec le débat public plus général sur les mécanismes de formation et d’enracinement du crime. L’étude du banditisme rural, en ce sens, ne peut pas être séparée des dynamiques de développement du concept de « classes dangereuses », du crime organisé et de la profession de criminel. Dans le même temps, le développement de modes littéraires détermine des étapes culturelles qui façonnent la sensibilité collective sur le brigandage en Europe et en Italie. Enfin, mettre en relation l’imaginaire du crime avec le thème du Risorgimento permet d’observer à quel point le discours sur le brigandage présente des pics d’intérêt politique, ou, à l’inverse, de relative folklorisation. Ceux-ci sont intimement liés aux luttes entre révolution et contre-révolution, et entre des projets nationaux opposés. Le titre de la thèse, en rappelant l’incipit de l’hymne national italien (« Frères d’Italie »), souhaite souligner l’ambiguïté et le chevauchement entre discours national et discours criminel qui, pour tout le XIXe siècle, accompagne l’imaginaire culturel, social et politique du brigandage. / The main aim of the thesis is to retrace and historicize the processes of representation of Italian brigands during the Risorgimento. The research situates the brigands within the general framework of construction of political and cultural models regarding criminal identities during the 19th century. My dissertation has a chronological structure, even though I identified three fundamental subjects, evoked in the subtitle: crime, literature and politics. The figure of the bandit has played a central role especially in the history and identity of Southern Italy (Rome and Naples). I assume that the chronology related to the imaginary of Italian brigands is the flourishing result of the interaction between the social and cultural construction of criminal identity, the literary discourse and the dynamics of political conflict related to the process of Italian unification. Such interactions constantly merge the representations of brigandage with the public debate about the mechanism at the origin and the embedding of crime. Therefore, the study of rural banditry cannot be separated from the concepts of “dangerous classes”, organized crime and criminal profession, and their dynamics and evolution. At the same time, the development of different literary genres determines the cultural phases shaping society’s sensitivity about brigands in Europe and Italy. Thus, putting into relation the social imaginary of crime with the theme of Risorgimento, the reader will notice to which point the representations of brigands offers insights of political interest, or, on the contrary, of folklorization. These dynamics are intimately linked at the struggle between revolution and counter-revolution, in a wider frame of opposite nation-building projects. The title of the thesis, recalling the beginning of Italian hymn (“Brothers of Italy”), highlights the ambiguity and the overlap of national and criminal discourses, which accompany the cultural, social and political imaginary of brigands and brigandage during the 19th century.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the medieval Florentine poet Dante Alighieri was an almost completely unknown figure in the United States. Yet, by mid-century, he was considered by many Americans to be one of the world's greatest poets and his major epic, the Divine Comedy, was translated during the Civil War by the most popular American poet at the time, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This dissertation examines Dante's nineteenth-century emergence in the United States and the historical and cultural reasons why Dante, for many nineteenth-century Americans, became a highly-regarded literary figure and an unexpectedly popular poet during the Civil War. Using new historicist and book studies methodologies, it argues that Dante was widely viewed as an important theological-political poet, a cultural representative of Italy and nineteenth-century Italian nationalism and liberalism, one who spoke powerfully to antebellum and wartime issues of national disunity, states' rights, the nature of empire, and the justice and injustice of civil war. American periodicals and English-language translations of the Comedy touted Dante as a great national poet--a model who might inspire any would-be national poet of the United States--while interpreting his biography and the Comedy in terms of American and transatlantic political events, ideologies, and discourses. Aware of such promotion, many American writers, including Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman, read and interpreted the Comedy in terms of national politics and, by the early 1860s, the Civil War. Given its relevance and popularity during the 1860s--numerous books by or about Dante were published in the United States during this decade--the Divine Comedy thus became an important epic poem of the Civil War, a poem that Longfellow and Walt Whitman turned to while constructing their wartime and Reconstruction-era poetry.

Zugl.: Ithaca, Cornell Univ., Diss., 2007

The Risorgimento or "resurrection" of Italy united a collection of independent Italian kingdoms, duchies, and principalities under the auspices of the Piedmontese House of Savoy. No longer was Italy a mere expression géographique, as Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich snidely remarked in 1847, but a united nation state. Studies of the Risorgimento successfully highlight the role of famous Piedmontese and Italian nationalists in demonstrating the success of the movement. However, the smaller states of the peninsula have largely disappeared from these histories. Among these overlooked states is the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and Tuscany's last grand duke, Leopold II of Habsburg-Lorraine. Both are consistently omitted from broader surveys of the peninsula. In rare situations when Leopold II enters the historical narrative he is dismissed as a reactionary, although he maintained a reputation as an enlightened and relatively liberal ruler for the majority of his rule. Especially in anglophone literature, little to no discussion of his thirty-five-year reign is available. This omission creates an unfortunate lacuna in the historiography of the Risorgimento. It is in studies of these smaller Italian states that the intricacies of statecraft, nationalism, and localism are most visible. To understand the extent of the Risorgimento's success, it is imperative to delve deeper into the affairs of states like the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. This examination of Tuscan politics takes a top-down approach, emphasizing the role of Tuscany's highest officials and the influence that their equivalents in other European states had on the course of the Risorgimento in Tuscany. In particular, it seeks to provide a more accurate and fair assessment of Leopold II's actions and his impact on Tuscany's participation in the unification of Italy.

La presente tesi di dottorato è il primo studio complessivo sui rapporti di Alessandro Manzoni con la cultura anglosassone, considerati nelle due direzioni: da una parte, le possibili influenze della letteratura inglese sulle sue opere, dall’altra la fortuna dell’autore in Gran Bretagna e negli Stati Uniti nell’Ottocento. Manzoni, infatti, non fu complessivamente incompreso o ignorato nei paesi anglosassoni, come ritenevano alcuni studiosi. Al contrario: personaggi importanti del mondo letterario e culturale apprezzavano e citavano le sue opere, e le numerose traduzioni, recensioni, antologie e libri sull’Italia testimoniano che questo autore era noto tra il pubblico colto. Tra gli episodi più importanti della fortuna di Manzoni nell’Inghilterra vittoriana si possono ricordare: due recensioni di Mary Shelley, influenzata dalla prospettiva risorgimentale (che era in realtà ambivalente verso Manzoni); e un romanzo della scrittrice Charlotte Yonge, legata al movimento di Oxford, che apprezzava particolarmente "I promessi sposi" per i valori cristiani. Negli Stati Uniti, i pregi del romanzo erano riconosciuti da intellettuali attenti alla cultura italiana contemporanea, come Emerson e Margaret Fuller. / This dissertation is the first overall study on Alessandro Manzoni’s relationship with the English-speaking world, considered along both lines: possible influences from English literature on Manzoni’s works, and Manzoni’s reception in Great Britain and the United States in the XIXth century. Manzoni was not ignored or misunderstood in those countries, as some critics believed. On the contrary, distinguished men and women from the literary and cultural world read, liked and quoted his works. Indeed, the great number of translations, reviews, anthologies and books on Italy dealing with Manzoni testifies that the Italian author was well-known among the educated reading public. Two important episodes of Manzoni’s reception in Victorian England can be mentioned: two reviews by Mary Shelley, who was influenced by the issues of the Italian Risorgimento (not totally sympathetic with Manzoni); a novel by Charlotte Yonge, the novelist of the Oxford movement, who admired Manzoni’s "Promessi sposi" for its Christian values. In the United States, the merits of Manzoni’s work were acknowledged by Emerson and Margaret Fuller, who showed interest and consideration for the contemporary Italian culture.