Literature and the literariness of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince
This lecture will focus on the literary space of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince. For centuries, The Prince was included in school and university curricula because it was considered a historical essay. At present, it does not meet the minimum requirements that are now recognised as necessary for a particular text to be included in the literary canon.
This issue will be considered from two perspectives. From one, historiographical point of view, the literary field has narrowed since the Romantic era as it has included only poetic texts or texts of poetic inspiration. From another, theoretical point of view, The Prince is a work whose complex structural dynamics can only be described by aesthetics. The lecture will explore The Prince in the light of the Discourses and The Mandrake (Italian: La Mandragola). Professor Baldi will also offer an overview of the latest research on the relations between politics and literature.
Lecturer
Valentino Baldi teaches contemporary Italian literature at the University for Foreigners in Siena. He also specialises in literary theory and comparative literature. He has published essays and articles on Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli, Italo Svevo, Luigi Pirandello, Carlo Emilio Gadda and other authors and literary topics. He is the author of monographs Reale Invisibile. Mimesi e interiorità nella narrativa di Pirandello e Gadda (Marsilio, Venezia, 2010); Psicoanalisi, critica e letteratura. Problemi, esempi, prospettive (Pacini, Pisa, 2014); Il sole e la morte. Saggio sulla teoria letteraria di Francesco Orlando (Quodlibet, Macerata, 2015); and Come frantumi di mondi (2019). He is a member of the editorial boards of "Allegoria", "L’ospite ingrato" and "Ticontré. Teoria, testo, traduzione".