Scapigliatura

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Morena Corradi (Queens College, CUNY)
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A complex and long undervalued literary, artistic, and social movement, the

Scapigliatura

developed in late nineteenth-century Italy, becoming the main actor of the post-Unification cultural scene. The term “scapigliatura”, borrowed from Cletto Arrighi’s novel

La Scapigliatura e il 6 febbraio

(

The Scapigliatura and February 6th

) (1862), evokes the French bohème for the irregular, at times disheveled (the very meaning of the word “scapigliato”) life-style and the antagonistic attitude towards society of many of its exponents. Although mostly members of the bourgeoisie, these intellectuals were in fact at odds with their social class and fostered a radical social transformation towards a business and proto-industrial economy, particularly in the Milan area which was the cradle of…

2534 words

Citation: Corradi, Morena. "Scapigliatura". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 March 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19320, accessed 28 March 2024.]

19320 Scapigliatura 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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