"Il popolo resta in silenzio": l’identità collettiva da Manzoni a Sennett

Abstract

The paper focuses on the role played by Alessandro Manzoni in the construction of the people’s modern imaginary, offering a critical reflection that revolves around Richard Sennett and includes Antonio Gramsci and Umberto Eco, Ennio Flaiano and Carlo Emilio Gadda. Hence, the chance to interpret I promessi sposi (1827 and 1840) and especially the Osservazioni sulla morale cattolica (1819) as founding texts of a modern conception of the people, pivoted on the conflict between authenticity and artifice. This conflict features a juxtaposition of the people and power. Thus, it is possible to further investigate the relationship between cultural displacement and popular identity starting from Sennett’s essay The Foreigner (2011, Lo Straniero 2012) which, among other things, employes Manzoni’s concept of the people to outline “the modern social imaginary and rhetoric” (Sennett, 2011:68)

Keywords: Sociologia della letteratura, sradicamento culturale, narrazione e modernità, immaginario del popolo