Dead City: bourgeois triumph over the search for classical beauty in D’Annunzio’s tragedies
- Gabriele D’Annunzio, tragedy, beauty, theatre, Città Morta
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Abstract
In September 1895 D’Annunzio wrote to his publisher, Emilio Treves, of having rediscovered Sophocles and Aeschylus during his stay in Mycenae and of having found inspiration for a new drama. Therefore, Città morta was written under the sign of τράγος (tragedy), to which the Vate constantly refers in the text. The characters of Città morta are imperfect and incomplete and they live the bourgeois drama of the constant pursuit of beauty and cling to it in every way, deluding themselves that they have it. The present essay focuses on the obsessive research for classical beauty by the protagonists of Città morta and on the subtle intertwining between bourgeois and classical theater woven by the poet Vate.