Ideas and suggestions for the creation of an essay on Ugo Foscolo, an illustrious poet and writer of the nineteenth century. The development of a written essay.
Theme on Ugo Foscolo
Ugo Foscolo is one of the most important Italian writers of the nineteenth century , author of famous sonnets such as In morte del fratello Giovanni , A Zacinto , Alla Sera and many other works. If your Italian teacher has assigned you a written essay on the famous author Dei sepolcri and you don’t know where to start, you can refer to the essay on Ugo Foscolo for ideas and suggestions for your written assignment.
Theme on Ugo Foscolo: development
Introduction to Neoclassicism
The artists, writers and intellectuals of Neoclassicism were inspired by the classical age, because it is in it and its ideals that they reflected themselves. The artists of this era, in fact, no longer recognized themselves in the values and traits of the Baroque or Rococo , considered a period of “bizarre” taste, they believed, instead, that they had to implement a recovery of the classical age.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German art historian and archaeologist introduced the concept of ” ideal beauty” that asserted itself during Neoclassicism; for Winckelmann the ideal of universal and immutable beauty could be achieved through the imitation of the aesthetic ideals of classical antiquity. In fact, it is Greek art that embodies the ideals of harmony, grace and balance, ideals that artists must reproduce in their works.
Development
Ugo Foscolo is considered one of the greatest Italian poets, representative of neoclassicism and pre-romanticism . Some episodes of the poet’s life are essential to understand the essence of his works and intense cultural activity.
In the writer’s literary production, the reference to classicism is very strong. Foscolo, born in Zakynthos , Greece, feels his origin as a predestination to literature and this feeling is very present in his writings. In the work Le Grazie , the nostalgia for the classical age and its ideals emerges more. The poem, which remained unfinished and was dedicated to the famous sculptor Antonio Canova , is composed of three hymns written in blank hendecasyllables, dedicated respectively to Venus, Vesta and Athena.
Elements of classicism are also present in the sonnet A Zacinto , this is clearly visible from the title of the poem, that is, a Greek island and the poet’s birthplace. Here, moreover, the poet contrasts his own history with the experience of Ulysses . The destiny of the poet and Ulysses, however, is different: the first, to whom fate is hostile, will not be allowed to return home, in fact, Foscolo will “touch the sacred shores” of his land only through poetry, Ulysses, instead, accompanied by a friendly fate, will be able to return to Ithaca.
The poet will never return to his island and with this poem he demonstrates how much he loved his land and, indirectly, all the classicism to which he feels he deeply belongs.
The poetics
In Foscolo’s poetics we find aspects of the Enlightenment , Romanticism and Neoclassicism . We can identify recurring themes in the poet’s works, including love for the homeland and the search for a national identity, the ideal of freedom, the importance of memory, linked to the role of tombs.
But also the role of poetry which is eternal, thanks to which it is possible to overcome the temporality of life.
The poet accepts the materialistic conception of life and death as simple transformations of matter, even if this clashes with the more romantic and individualistic part. The ideals of beauty, love, heroism and homeland are ultimately illusions that life then destroys.
The main works
The main topics addressed by the poet, namely love, death and politics, are found to a different extent in his two main works, namely in the epistolary novel Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis and in the poem Dei Sepolcri , as well as in the sonnets Alla sera and In morte del fratello Giovanni .
In his work Dei sepolcri , Foscolo emphasizes the importance of tombs, thanks to which it is possible to stay in touch with loved ones who have lost their lives. Only those who do not deserve the affection of their loved ones do not have the honor of having a tomb. The value of burial finds historical justifications, since this cult marks the birth of civilization, but it is also linked to patriotic ideals, since tombs celebrate the great figures of the past, passing on their memory and glory.
The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis , on the other hand, is a substantially autobiographical novel, in fact, behind the protagonist’s clothes are hidden the poet’s reflections on the values of his time and on his own life conditions.
In the work there are two important themes: love and political passion. As for the political theme, there is Jacopo’s disappointment for the Treaty of Campoformio, and for this reason the patriotic ideals that pushed him to fight for national identity and to change things are lost. Thus two personalities of the protagonist emerge: one combative and rebellious and the other resigned to the imposed limits.
Love, on the other hand, highlights the doctrine of illusions : beauty, poetry and love are values useful for alleviating the sufferings of life. The character of Teresa represents sweetness, love and divine beauty, capable of reviving Jacopo from political disappointment. However, the two cannot be together because Teresa is promised in marriage to the rich Odoardo. At this point Jacopo’s failure is total, the protagonist reaches a state of deep desperation that reaches the point of refusing his own existence. Death, present in the background of the entire novel, finds its fulfillment here: it is an end seen as the cancellation of life and liberation from anguish.
Foscolo, unlike Jacopo, continued to fight for his ideals and values, even if disappointed by the political events of his time. Jacopo, instead, chooses the only alternative solution to resignation.
