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Do Intellectuals Still Exist? The Case of Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Alfonso Berardinelli
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Abstract

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It has never been easy to understand what intellectuals are, whether they still exist, or whether they are vanishing into a huge ‘cultural middle class’ where high culture and mass culture meld into one another. With particular reference to Italy, Alfonso Berardinelli looks back at the undisputed intellectuals of the past, suggesting that they were their own critics and most determined detractors at the same time, yet full of confidence in their capacity to lay down laws for organizing and developing society. In contrast, today's intellectuals seem to embrace anonymity, and in a context defined as postmodern, they have given up being an elite that judges, whose duty is not only to produce knowledge but also to propose values and social models.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , November 2004 , pp. 81 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2004

References

Notes

1. F. De Sanctis (1971) Storia della letturatura italiana; new edn introduced by C. Milanese, Rome, Newton, 1991.

2. E. De Amicis (1892) Cuore; new edn, introduction and notes E. Barelli, Milan, Rizzoli, coll. ‘Biblioteca universale’, 3rd edn, 1984.

3. C. Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio (many English versions available including Oxford, 2002 and Walker Books, 2003).

4. I. Silone (1934) Fontamara, English translation by E. Mosbacher, London, Everyman, 1994.

5. C. Levi (1945) Cristo si è fermato a Eboli, English translation, Christ Stopped at Eboli, by F. Frenaye, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1982.

6. A ‘rent boy’. This is the title of a novel by Pasolini: Ragazzi di vita, 2nd edn, Turin, Einaudi, 1979; English translation, The Ragazzi, by E. Capouya, London, Paladin, 1989.

7. G. Tomasi di Lampedusa, Il gattopardo, English translation, The Leopard, by A. Colquhoun, London, Everyman, 1991.

8. C. E. Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, English translation, That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana, by W. Weaver, London, Quartet, 1985.

9. E. Morante, La Storia, English translation, History, by W. Weaver, London, Penguin, 2002.

10. Those that have been published in English translation are: P. Volponi, The Memorandum (Memoriale), London, Calder & Boyars, 1967; The Worldwide Machine (La macchina mondiale), London, Calder & Boyars, 1969; R. La Capria, The Mortal Wound (Ferito a morte), London, Collins, 1984.