The Historicity of Forms and Literary Themes in Francesco Orlando’s Theory

Abstract

The historicizing potential of Orlando’s “method” lies in the intersection of his two models, Freud and Auerbach. The original aspects of his “historiography” rely on the choice of exemplary instances, on the broad chronological extent of his analysis, and on his trust in the truth potential literature possesses, if it is seen as a field of conflicting forces. This essay examines two different propositions for historicizing which Orlando puts forth: first, historicizing literary forms, as he shows in Illuminismo, barocco e retorica freudiana; second, historicizing themes, as he sets out to do in Gli oggetti desueti nelle immagini della letteratura. The essay will then compare them with his posthumous research on the supernatural in fiction. My aim is to find, in Orlando’s perspective, innovative and still valid critical tools both for the interpretation of literature and for teaching it.