Home >> The Modern Language Review, Volume 103, Number 2

Alessandro Manzoni's I promessi sposi: A Chaste Novel and an Erotic Palimpsest

Author: Parisi, Luciano

Source: The Modern Language Review, Volume 103, Number 2, 1 April 2008 , pp. 424-437(14)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

In I promessi sposi, Manzoni avoids love scenes, fearing that some readers might relive them with excessive intensity. This article focuses on twentieth-century writers and critics who introduced erotic elements in their rewriting or rereading of the novel. Their eroticization of Manzoni was often prompted by satirical intentions or a taste for desecration. Yet writers such as Alberto Moravia and Mario Soldati and critics such as Vittorio Spinazzola and Paolo Valesio have glimpsed in the novel the erotic elements that Manzoni had tried to suppress, and used this perception to express the changed sensitivities of their own time.

Keywords: I promessi sposi; Manzoni; eroticization; Alberto Moravia; Mario Soldati; Vittorio Spinazzola; Paolo Valesio

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Exeter

Publication date: 2008-04-01

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  • The Modern Language Review, the flagship journal of the Association, is available to all individual members as part of their subscription. MLR is one of the oldest journals in its field, maintaining an unbroken publication record since its foundation in 1905, and publishing more than 3,000 articles and 20,000 book reviews.

    Each volume consists of four issues, published in January, April, July and October of each year. Its 1000+ annual pages are divided roughly equally between articles, predominantly on medieval and modern literature in the languages of Europe, and over 500 reviews of books in these areas. All contributions are in English, and each section is edited by a noted scholar in the field, under the overall supervision of the General Editor. Articles are chosen not only for their scholarly worth and originality but also, as far as possible, for their potential interest to a wider readership in other disciplines.
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