Description
Art, aesthetics, literary criticism, and political science are fields that are today scarcely recognized (though they were originally long pursued) among the truly extraordinary intellectual exploits of the great Italian philosopher and political activist Eugenio Colorni. The present volume intends, at least in part, to fill this gap. It reveals first and foremost the anti-fascist inspiration which from the beginning animated Colorni in the pages of the Genoese Gobettian young-people’s review Pietre, especially in its second series edited by Lelio Basso. It presents three of Colorni’s essays on aesthetics (two of them unpublished and rediscovered by Mario Quaranta), initially developed in the framework of the teachings of G.A. Borgese, which respectively concern the work of Roberto Ardigò, Bergsonism, and Benedetto Croce (the latter in the definitive version — L’estetica di Benedetto Croce. Studio Critico — published as a monograph as early as 1932). It brings together many of the young Colorni’s reviews of articles concerning these disciplines and others, such as law and philosophy. Through the courtesy of Signora Eva Hirschmann Monteforte, it also includes many of Colorni’s opinions as an involuntary literary critic, taken from his correspondence with his wife Ursula Hirschmann during his imprisonment and confinement. Finally, the volume closes with two novellas that he wrote as an adult.
Literary Nonfiction. Italian Studies. Art. Literary Criticism.
Author Bio
Eugenio Colorni (1909-1944), socialist philosopher and political activist, was also interested in literary criticism, natural sciences and psychology. Following the racial laws of 1937, he was incarcerated and then confined in the Ventotene island where, together with Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi, and Ursula Hirschmann promoted the European Federalist Movement. Leader in the Resistance in Rome, he was murdered by the infamous fascist and Nazi Koch gang a few days prior to the liberation of Rome.
Author City: Rome ITA