The aim of this paper is to analyze the legal debate on the body discipline and sexual behaviour in liberal Italy, focusing on the penal repression of the literary obscene after the Unification. Virtue and honour had represented two founding traits of Risorgimento, the prestige of the new national state demanded an educational and constant vigilant programme based on the moral habits of the population. Over and above pornography, even the literature was subject of sustained attention: the notion of obscene became an object which marked crossing frontiers between law and moral. From this perspective, paper firstly examines catholic worries as regard the spread of works offensive of good habits, as well as the opinions of new positivist currents which were re-designed the public imaginary about sexuality and reproduction in the name of appeals to objective and scientific reason. Secondly, it focus on the famous trails of Umberto Notari and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti that represented two milestones of debate as regard relationship between modesty and artistic expression. Under the outline, the problem of defence of decorum in Italy was bounded whit the edification of new project of national citizenship anchored to the respect of a rigid moral conformism which imprinted in the sexual field a rigid separation between obedience and deviance, between normality and abnormality.

Il presente contributo analizza il tema della disciplina del corpo e della sessualità nell’Italia liberale, con particolare riferimento al dibattito giuridico sulla nozione di “osceno” nell’opera letteraria all’indomani dell’Unificazione. Virtù ed onore avevano rappresentato due tratti fondanti dell’epopea del risorgimentale: il prestigio del nuovo stato unitario esigeva un programma di vigilanza costante sui costumi morali della popolazione. Al di là della pornografia, anche la letteratura fu oggetto di costante attenzione da parte dei pubblici poteri: il carattere “osceno” di una pubblicazione si avviò a diventare un campo di tensione destinato a segnare le mobili frontiere tra diritto e morale. In questa prospettiva, il contributo nella sua prima parte esamina le preoccupazioni provenienti dal mondo cattolico per la diffusione di una serie di pubblicazioni contrarie ai buoni costumi, passando poi ad analizzare gli apporti forniti della cd. scuola positiva, impegnata a ridefinire un nuovo immaginario della sessualità e della riproduzione in nome dell’appello all’oggettività e alla ragione scientifica. Nella seconda parte, l’articolo esamina i famosi processi nei confronti di Umberto Notari e Filippo Tommaso Marinetti che rappresentarono due momenti assai significativi nel dibattito sul rapporto tra il pudore e la libertà di espressione artistica. Sottotraccia, il problema del decoro nella Italia fin de siècle, si legava a filo doppio con il progetto di edificazione di una cittadinanza nazionale improntata al rispetto di un rigido conformismo che segnava in campo sessuale una rigida separazione tra obbedienza e devianza, tra ‘normalità’ e ‘anormalità’.

«The corruption of habits marks the decadence of nations». The penal repression of the literary obscene in Italy between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

SERPICO, Francesco
2017-01-01

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the legal debate on the body discipline and sexual behaviour in liberal Italy, focusing on the penal repression of the literary obscene after the Unification. Virtue and honour had represented two founding traits of Risorgimento, the prestige of the new national state demanded an educational and constant vigilant programme based on the moral habits of the population. Over and above pornography, even the literature was subject of sustained attention: the notion of obscene became an object which marked crossing frontiers between law and moral. From this perspective, paper firstly examines catholic worries as regard the spread of works offensive of good habits, as well as the opinions of new positivist currents which were re-designed the public imaginary about sexuality and reproduction in the name of appeals to objective and scientific reason. Secondly, it focus on the famous trails of Umberto Notari and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti that represented two milestones of debate as regard relationship between modesty and artistic expression. Under the outline, the problem of defence of decorum in Italy was bounded whit the edification of new project of national citizenship anchored to the respect of a rigid moral conformism which imprinted in the sexual field a rigid separation between obedience and deviance, between normality and abnormality.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11695/65684
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