La Trasmutazione Della Coscienza Nell'esoterismo Italiano Del Periodo
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La trasmutazione della coscienza nell’esoterismo italiano del periodo fascista: Spaccio dei maghi (1929) di Mario Manlio Rossi e Maschera e volto dello spiritualismo contemporaneo (1932) di Julius Evola By Roberto Bacci Laurea, Università di Bologna, 1997 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Italian Studies at Brown University PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND MAY 2012 © Copyright 2012 by Roberto Bacci This dissertation by Roberto Bacci is accepted in its present form by the Department of Italian Studies as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date______________ _______________________________________ Massimo Riva, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date______________ _______________________________________ Ronald Martinez, Reader Date______________ _______________________________________ Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, Reader Date______________ _______________________________________ Marco Pasi, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date______________ _______________________________________ Peter M. Weber, Dean of the Graduate School iii CURRICULUM VITAE Roberto Bacci was born in Bologna, Italy, in 1969. EDUCATION: • Brown University (Providence, RI), 2012. PhD, Italian Studies (expected). • Università di Bologna (Bologna, Italy), 1997. Laurea summa cum laude, Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, Dept. of Literature and Philosophy. Dissertation award (dignità di stampa) for the thesis: “La poetica di Arnulf Øverland da La festa solitaria (Den ensomme fest, 1915) all’adesione a Mot Dag (1922).” PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES: Teaching: • University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 2009-2011. Lecturer. Spring 2011: Intermediate Italian II (2 classes). Fall 2010: Intermediate Italian I (2 classes). Spring 2010: Italian Film (in English), Intermediate Italian II. Fall 2009: Intermediate Italian I (2 classes). • Brown University, Providence, RI, 2003-2009. Teaching Assistant. Spring 2009: Elementary Italian II. Spring 2006: Advanced Italian II. Spring 2005: Advanced Italian II. Spring 2004: Intermediate Italian II. Fall 2003: Intermediate Italian I. • University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 1999-2001. Instructor in Italian. Spring 2001: Elementary Italian (3 classes). Fall 2000: Elementary Italian (3 classes). Spring 2000: Elementary Italian (3 classes). Fall 1999: Elementary Italian (4 classes). • Centro Cultura Italiana, Bologna, Italy, June-October 1997. Teacher of Italian language to foreigners. iv Collaboration with publishing houses: • Longanesi & C., Milan, Italy, 1997-1998. Literature translator and consultant for the Scandinavian and English linguistic areas (see below: Publications). • Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo, Norway, 1994-1995. Selection and translation into Neo-Norwegian of contemporary Italian poets (see below: Publications). Other professional experiences: • Brown University, 2005-2008. Research Assistant for The Virtual Humanities Lab (VHL). XML encoding of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante (1373-5). PUBLICATIONS: Translations: • Gaarder, Jostein. In uno specchio, in un enigma. Milano: Longanesi & C., 1999. (Original Norwegian: I et speil, i en gåte. Oslo: Aschehoug, 1993). Republished: Milano: TEA, 2001. Novel. • Gaarder, Jostein. Vita brevis. Milano: Longanesi & C., 1998. (Original Norwegian: Vita brevis. Oslo: Aschehoug, 1997). Republished: Milano: TEA, 2000. Novel. • Fredriksson, Marianne. Le figlie di Hanna. Milano: Longanesi & C., 1998. (Original Swedish: Anna, Hanna och Johanna. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1994). Republished: Milano: TEA, 1999. Novel. • Translation into Neo-Norwegian (nynorsk) of poems by contemporary Italian authors (G. Caproni, M. Luzi, A. Rosselli, E. Sanguineti) for the volume Poetisk modernisme. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget, 1995 (in collaboration with Eva Jensen and Guri Vesaas). Articles: • “‘Flegmatikeren hører ikke hjemme i litteraturen.’ Arnulf Øverlands poetikk fra hans debut som kunst- og litteraturkritiker (1915) til hans tilslutning til Mot Dag v (1922).” Italiablikk: Norsk og nordisk kultur og litteratur sett fra Bologna. Eds. Eva Maagerø, Elise Seip Tønnesen and Randi Langen Moen. Skriftserien 102. Kristiansand (Norway): Høgskolen i Agder, 2003. 21-41. PAPERS PRESENTED: • “Esotericism and the ‘New Man’ in Fascist Italy: Mario Manlio Rossi and Julius Evola.” Italian Studies Colloquium, Brown University, Spring 2007. • “Individual Transformation in the Esoteric Mode of Thought 1919-39: Julius Evola and the Occult Renaissance.” Italian Studies Colloquium, Brown University, Spring 2006. ACADEMIC HONORS, GRANTS AND AWARDS: • 2011. Brown University Summer Dissertation Grant. • 2009-2010. Graduate International Colloquia Grant, Brown University (in collaboration with other graduate students of Brown University). • 2008-2009. Brown University Fellowship. • 2007-2008. Thomas R. Huckins ’38 Graduate Fellowship. • 2006-2007. Herbert A. Kenyon Italian Fellowship. • 2003-2006. Brown University Fellowship. • 1997. Dignità di stampa (dissertation award), Università di Bologna. • 1994-1995. Scholarship, Norwegian Council for Research. • 1992. Scholarship, University of Bergen. • 1991. Scholarship, Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and University of Oslo. PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP: • American Association for Italian Studies • European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism • Modern Language Association vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to the members of my dissertation committee – Prof. Massimo Riva, Prof. Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg and Prof. Ronald Martinez at Brown University, and Prof. Marco Pasi at the University of Amsterdam – for the knowledgeable advice, the time, the energy and the interest they have put into this project. Fully aware that the list will be incomplete, I wish to thank a number of individuals and groups who have been perhaps less directly involved in the process of dissertation writing, but whose help and support has been priceless: Mona Delgado, for the sincerity and spontaneity with which she always offers her assistance to graduate students, and for making complicated tasks seem easy; Prof. Anthony Oldcorn for his competence and delightfully irreverent wit that does not get intimidated by the most solemn occasions; Cristina Abbona-Sneider for every time she has given me a hand first as a colleague, then as a supervisor and always as a friend; Prof. Thomas E. Peterson for believing in me no matter where in the world we were, and for having been the first person to mention Brown University to me; the many faculty members, friends, colleagues and students at Brown University, University of Georgia and University of Massachusetts, Amherst; the graduate students of the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, in particular Joyce Pijnenburg and Eduard ten Houten, for the enthusiasm with which they have shared their interests and kept me in contact with an academic institution of the highest rank where vii esotericism is studied as the main subject; Prof. Luciano Mecacci for having provided me with precious suggestions and texts on Mario Manlio Rossi that were difficult to find in the United States. Finally I would like to thank my family for always having been a reliable point of reference on which I could count even from afar. viii INDICE INTRODUZIONE 1 1. TRASMUTAZIONE, AUTOCOSCIENZA ED ESOTERISMO 8 1.1. Trasmutazione ed esoterismo: la seconda nascita 8 1.2. Trasmutazione e fascismo: verso l’uomo nuovo 13 1.3. Forme e figure di trasmutazione 17 1.4. Autocoscienza e stati superiori di coscienza 20 1.5. L’esoterismo italiano nel periodo interbellico: Julius Evola 25 1.6. L’esoterismo italiano nel periodo interbellico: Mario Manlio Rossi 32 1.7. L’esoterismo italiano nel periodo interbellico: altre personalità e correnti 34 2. TRASMUTAZIONE DELLA COSCIENZA INDIVIDUALE E SOCIETÀ 40 2.1. Articolazioni di un problema 40 2.2. L’uno e il molteplice 41 2.3. L’uguale e il diverso 43 2.4. Volontà e comando 55 2.5. Interiorità ed esteriorità 61 2.6. La verità: realtà e apparenza 67 2.7. Il tempo 71 2.8. La parola e l’azione 77 ix 3. DALLA FINE DELLA PRIMA GUERRA MONDIALE A SPACCIO DEI MAGHI 80 3.1. Gli anni dell’immediato dopoguerra e l’avvento del fascismo 80 3.2. La lotta alla massoneria e l’uccisione di Giovanni Amendola 87 3.3. Il Concordato e la fine degli anni Venti 94 4. SPACCIO DEI MAGHI (1929) DI MARIO MANLIO ROSSI 103 4.1. Kant e l’influenza degli spiriti 103 4.2. La molteplicità dei modi e dei piani d’esistenza 107 4.3. Steiner e la magia rinascimentale 112 4.4. L’ineffabile, il segreto e i gruppi iniziatici 118 4.5. Rito collettivo e individualità 124 4.6. I “maghi”: Novalis, Keyserling, Evola, Reghini 133 4.7. I limiti dell’umano 144 4.8. I primi anni Trenta 149 5. MASCHERA E VOLTO DELLO SPIRITUALISMO CONTEMPORANEO (1932) DI JULIUS EVOLA 165 5.1. Lo “spirituale” e il “demonico” 165 5.2. La medianità: spiritismo e ricerche psichiche 175 5.3. La psicanalisi e l’inconscio 183 5.4. Il “teosofismo” di Madame Blavatskij 200 5.5. L’antroposofia di Rudolf Steiner 212 5.6. Messianismo, misticismo ed estasi: Jiddu Krishnamurti 220 5.7. Tradizione universale e cattolicesimo: René Guénon 232 5.8. La magia: Lévi, Kremmerz, Meyrink e Keyserling 240 x 6. VERSO LA SECONDA GUERRA MONDIALE 255 6.1. Il nazismo al potere 255 6.2. L’asse Roma-Berlino, l’impero e la razza 262 6.3. Dopo il 1939 267 CONCLUSIONI 281 BIBLIOGRAFIA 291 xi INTRODUZIONE Un aspetto fondamentale