DANTE, THE BIRTH OF ITALY AND ITALIAN LITERATURE: IT TELLS OF THE ORIGINS IN THE HISTORY OF THE RISORGIMENTO LITERATURE

When examining the origins of Italian literature, historians have to carefully consider the role played by the South and the Mediterranean during its emergence, while at the same time acknowledging the concerns connected to the formation of a national identity, given that Italy was still a country in the making. In the various reconstructions of this literary period that appeared both in anthologies and especially in histories of Italian literature dating from the 19th century, the roots of the tradition tended to be represented either as predominantly Mediterranean or Germanic in nature. In this context, Dante, who during the Romantic period was crowned the father of Italian literature and culture, took on a singular role, due in part to the fact that he was the first to produce a systematic history of literature from its origins. However, it was especially in Francesco De Sanctis' Storia della letteratura italiana that he was presented as an aesthetic model for contemporary writers to mirror; by aspiring to Dante, perceived here as a kind of foreigner, the Italian tradition would then be able to reconnect itself with the most important forms of European literature of the period, the latter having successfully followed in the path paved by Dante.