Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

THE PROGRESS OF THE HERO IN ITALO SVEVO'S NOVELS

1966; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1179/its.1966.21.1.91

1748-6181

Jean Murray,

Italian Fascism and Post-war Society

AbstractIn each of Italo Svevo's novels, l'Assassino di Via Belpoggio, Una Vita, Senilità and La Coscienza di Zeno, the author concentrates on one character more than on the others. The line of development which can be traced through these four characters shows an interesting curve and seems to me to reflect, in a way which can be equalled by few other writers, the dilemma of modern man. We see in Giorgio, l'assassino di Via Belpoggio, a man lacking in all ideals, asserting his individuality through violence; in Alfonso of Una Vita he sets himself up as a romantic hero, fighting for his personal freedom. Disillusioned by the realisation of the impossibility of attaining this ideal, he seems with Emilio of Senilità to turn to Existentialism and tries to affirm his own authenticity by making the decision to abandon the aim of total freedom and to help others. This does not fully satisfy him either and we find the curve descending to Zeno, the ordinary man, a member by choice of the ‘collective mediocrity’, who has given up the pursuit of an ideal as a way of seeking happiness and just accepts life as it is with an ironic smile, pretending indifference to its mysteries. The eclipse of the romantic hero and the rise and fall of the existential hero are thus documented in Svevo's novels. He seems to illustrate, through them, the dilemma of modern manif we see it as an awareness of lack of direction in life so that he continually experiments with alternative modes of existence. This article will attempt to show this in more detail and to pinpoint the reasons for this situation as they appear in Svevo's works.