Il potere della parola. Dante, Manzoni, Primo Levi

The volume examines I and II canti of Inferno, the chapter Il canto di Ulisse, included in Se questo è un uomo by Primo Levi, and chapters IX and X of Promessi sposi. The whole analysis, based on a method which combines philology and hermeneutics, focuses on the power of words, as it emerges from these texts. In Il canto di Ulisse, Primo’s effort to remember Dante’s words by heart allows him and Pikolo to understsand the reason of their destiny, thus opening a glimmer of meaning in the non-communicative insanity of the death camp. In the first two canti of the Divine Commedy, Virgilio’s words free Dante from his fears and, once Batrice proved their honesty, prompt him to begin the travel he still was unwilling to undertake in the first canto. In Gertrude’s case, her father uses the power of his words to inhibit the girl’s speech. This strategy does not only restrains the girl from expressing her own will, but also prevents the creation of a free will itself. The texts by Dante, Manzoni and Levi here examined reveal the power of words, showing both their saving and fearful aspect; they also provide the tools to restablish the original bond between truth and language, which funds human relationships and allows to create a new integral humanism.