The problem at the heart of the project was the study, definition and analysis of a historical-artistic phenomenon called “literary caricature”, never analysed by critics before and never interpreted as an autonomous concept and fully legitimate mode of expression. By literary caricature is defined the deformed, distorted, comic-grotesque representation of the human body used within literary works for critical and satirical purposes. The research was therefore aimed at identifying portions of literary texts that could be analyzed as a verbal analogous of the visual caricature.
More specifically, the work carried out during the project has moved along three main lines, considered simultaneously: i) the mapping of some significant occurrences of this phenomenon, aimed at demonstrating its existence and describing its original stylistic features; ii) the reconstruction of its historical evolution in relation to the birth and development of visual caricature; iii) the construction of a theoretical framework including the history of representation and interpretation of the human body, and the most recent discoveries on the perception of the human figure and its cognitive and emotional implications.
The study of “literary caricature” is connected to several general questions of considerable importance for society and contributes to reconsidering some cultural and political issues decisive for the present, and in particular: i) the study of the history of the body and its different semiotic and philosophical interpretations; ii) the reflection on satire and freedom of expression; iii) the dialogue and interaction between humanistic culture and scientific culture.
Consistent with the need to address the problems mentioned, the research was pivoted on three main objectives: i) the design of an anthology of literary caricatures, with examples that would testify to their presence and evolution over time, from the Renaissance to the twentieth century: ii) a theoretical study of the origins of literary caricature, and its stylistic, rhetorical, and cognitive functioning, enabled by the conception and application of a transdisciplinary methodology; iii) a specific focus dedicated to twentieth-century literature, with particular attention to the meanings that literary caricature takes on in literary works describing Fascist Italy, and with a detailed interpretation of caricature as a “symptom” of a psychic and emotional reaction to the constraints of the regime.
