Abstract
This paper examines the American and Italian reception of Manzoni’s I promessi sposi. It places the American reception of Manzoni within a larger context of the anti-Catholic nativism that has pervaded American society and academe. The reception of Manzoni in Italy, in contrast, is marked by anti-clericism. The case study of Manzoni’s reception raises the larger issue of the role of the study of religion within the discipline of literary studies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Manzoni initially planned to write I promessi sposi in an Italian language that was an amalgamation, but primarily based on his own Milanese dialect. He changed his mind at the suggestion of Antonio Rosmini who thought it best for Manzoni to use the language of Tuscany, where a continuous literature had formed the Florentine tongue to such a degree that it had become more than just a dialect, but a worthy instrument of national unity (Leetham 1982, p. 68). General opinion held that the Florentine idiom was beautiful, already in use, and recognized as the perfect type of language from which anyone who wanted to write well needed to cull words and expressions. Manzoni’s decision to use the Florentine idiom entailed considerable effort, since Manzoni did not have a sufficient knowledge of it and had to work to perfect his fluency. With tremendous effort, he rewrote I promessi sposi, purging it of French and Lombard idioms.
For a summary of this critical disregard, see Montano (1966–7, p. 55).
I still remember the only exam I ever refused to complete in a course entitled “Religion and Literature” at Harvard Divinity School in the late 1970s. For the final exam, the professor wrote that since hands figured prominently in the books we had read that semester, we should comment on the symbolic use of hands in these works. I believe that I started to analyse Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom and then just rebelled and walked out of the exam.
For a summary of this literature, see Massa (2003).
I usually teach Sanskrit literature and I can assure you that these students found McCarthy’s discussion of her faith as foreign as any Hindu text that I have ever taught.
If you visit her hometown of Savannah, Georgia, as I did looking for traces of her life there, you are far more likely to trace signposts of John Berlant, the author of the bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil or the minor poet Conrad Aiken than see any evocations of their native daughter.
Giovanni Gentile also viewed art as the expression of a subjective moment wherein the artist can overcome his small ego and reach the absolute transcendental ego. Manzoni shared this vision. He just substituted God for Gentile’s transcendental ego and Croce’s cosmic and eternal Absolute. All three thinkers believed in man’s free will and ethical responsibility (Caserta 1977, p. 33).
The first version appeared in 1825–27, the revised version in 1840.
Manzoni had also expressed similar thoughts in his Lettera a Victor Cousin: “Ils connaissent donc ces verités, Ils les connaisent par la parole ou dans la parole…ils les connaissait avant…ils connaissait donc ces verités dans la parole, avant les avoir aperçues and il connaissait ces vertus dans la parole” (cited in Zama 2008, p. 57).
Although written in 1831 as a response to Goethe, it was not published until 1850.
For another expression of this thematic, see Manzoni’s poem “The Pentecost.”
References
Asor Rosa, A. (1972). Sintesi della storia della letteratura italiana. Florence: La Nuova Italia.
Cadegan, U. M. (2013). All good books are Catholic books: Print culture, censorship, and modernity in twentieth-century America. Ithaca: Cornell UP.
Caserta, E. G. (1973). Manzoni’s aesthetic theory. Comparative Literature Studies, 19, 229–251.
Caserta, E. G. (1977). Manzoni’s Christian realism. Florence: Leo S. Olschki.
Colquhoun, A. (1954). Manzoni and his times. New York: E.P. Dutton.
Croce, B. (1943). Perché non possiamo non dirci cristiani. Bari: Laterza.
De Sanctis, F. (1955). Manzoni. Turin: Einaudi.
Gentile, G. (1923). Dante e Manzoni. Florence: Vallecchi.
Giordano, A. (1973). Manzoni: la vita, il pensiero e i texti esemplari. Milan: Accademia.
Greeley, A. M. (1976). Ethnicity, denomination and inequality. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Greeley, A. M. (1977). An ugly little secret: Anti-Catholicism in North America. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel.
Leetham, C. (2003). Rosmini: priest and philosopher. New York: New City Press 1982.
Manzoni, A. (1953). Dell’Invenzione. Opere (Ed. Riccardo Bacchelli). Milan/Naples: Riccardo Bacchelli.
Manzoni, A. (1969a). I promessi sposi. 2 vols. Milan: Fabbri.
Manzoni, A. (1969b). Scritti linguistichi. Naples: Liguori.
Manzoni, A. (1972). The betrothed. Trans. Bruce Penman. London: Penguin.
Manzoni, A. (1973). Del Romanzo storico. Opere di Alessandro Manzoni (Ed. Lanfranco Caretti). Milan: Mursia.
Manzoni, A. (1985). Osservazioni sulla morale catholica–Storia della Colonna Infame. Milan: Garzanti.
Marsden, G. M. (1977). The outrageous idea of Christian scholarship. New York: OUP.
Marsden, G. M. (1994). The soul of the American University: From protestant establishment to established nonbelief. New York: OUP.
Massa, M. S. (2003). Anti-Catholicism in America: The last acceptable prejudice. New York: Crossroad.
Momigliano, A. (1965). Dante, Manzoni, Verga. Messina: G. D’Anna.
Montano, R. (1973). Manzoni today. Italian Quarterly, 17(67), 24–54.
Montano. R. (1966-7). I promessi sposi: Reasons why it is scarcely known in America. Umanesimo 1, 45–58.
Moravia, A. (1964). Alessandro Manzoni o l’ipotesi di un realismo cattolico. In A. Moravia, L’uomo come fime e altri saggi (pp. 337–341). Milan: Bompiani.
Omodeo, A. (1946). L’Età del Risorgimento italiano. Naples: Edizioni scientifiche italiane.
Peer, L. H. (1986). The reasonable Romantic: Moving Manzoni into the American spectrum. In S. Matteo & L. H. Peer (Eds.), The reasonable Romantic: Essays on Alessandro Manzoni (pp. 21–32). New York: Peter Lang.
Petronio, G. (1947). Formazione e storia della lirica manzoniana. Florence: Sansoni.
Rosmini, A. (1968). Epistolaria filosofica (Ed. Giulio Bonafede). Trapani: Celebes.
Ruffini, F. (1931). La Vita religiosa di Alessandro Manzoni. Bari: Laterza.
Ruffini, F. (1943). Studi sul giansenismo. Florence: La Nuova Italia.
Russo, L. (1946). I personaggi dei promessi sposi. Bari: Laterza.
Sapegna, N. (1966). Compendio della storia della lettertura italiana. 3 vols. Florence: La Nuova Italia.
Tracy, D. (1981). The analogical imagination: Christian theology and the culture of pluralism. New York: Crossroad.
Triolo, F. (1986). Manzoni and providence. In S. Matteo & L. H. Peer (Eds.), The reasonable Romantic: Essays on Alessandro Manzoni (pp. 245–258). New York: Peter Lang.
Varese, C. (1975). Il ritrato e l’originale. Florence: La Nuova Italia.
Viti, G. (1978). Conoscere I promessi sposi. Florence: Le Monnier.
Zama, R. (2008). L’antimanzonismo linguistico del “Manzoniano Rosmini”. In G. Oliva (Ed.), L’antimanzonismo (pp. 49–78). Milan: Mondadori.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Figueira, D. Is it just too Catholic for us? The reception of I promessi sposi and the problem of religion and literature. Neohelicon 42, 425–434 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-014-0278-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-014-0278-1