CAPUANA CRITICO (DI DOSSI)

Abstract

In his introduction to the collection of Luigi Capuana’s Scritti critici (1972), Ermanno Scuderi claims that the renowned theorist of Verismo was a pioneer in contemporary literary criticism. The aim of the following contribution is to explore this claim, by analysing Capuana’s reviews of Carlo Dossi’s books, published while the author was still alive. Dossi was, and still is, regarded as difficult to read and understand, mainly for linguistic reasons. Although the review of Dossi’s first book by Cletto Arrighi was laudatory, other reviewers were overwhelmingly negative, until an elaborated piece of dossian criticism was released, featuring essays by Luigi Perelli, Giuseppe Antonio Borgese and Gian Pietro Lucini (1910-1911). In an essay devoted to Dossi in Studi sulla letteratura contemporanea, Capuana shows perspicacity and foresight. Therefore, Capuana’s literary criticism proves to be of particular interest for its role in establishing a canon of the late 19th century.