Giovanni Pascoli, Gabriele DAnnunzio, and the Ethics of Desire

This book focuses on the notion of desire in late-nineteenth-century Italy, and how this notion shapes the life and works of two of Italys most prominent authors at that time, Giovanni Pascoli and Gabriele DAnnunzio. In the fin de sicle, the philosophical speculation on desire, inspired by Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche intersected the popularization of Charles Darwins theory of evolution. Within this context, desire is conceptualized as an obscure force and remnant of mankinds animalistic origins. Both Pascoli and DAnnunzio put into play the drama of desire as a force splitting the unity of the characters in their works, and variously attempt to provide solutions to this haunting force within the human self.