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Languages: Alessandro Manzoni and the Betrothed 💍
[LANGUAGES] Alessandro Manzoni and the Betrothed 💍
Alessandro Manzoni is a big deal in the world of Italian literature. I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) is one of the most important and most widely read works in the Italian language. It’s like how we all had to read Shakespeare at school, Italians all had to read I Promessi Sposi. It is considered as one of the finest examples of Italian Romanticism and one of the best Italian historical novels to have been written. Manzoni consulted archives and based the plot off a true event. This novel is also a great examination of the human mind, good and evil and the nature of humanity. In May 2015, Pope Francis asked betrothed couples to read this novel before they were married!
💡 Things to consider
History vs Fiction: Manzoni claimed ‘truth was the goal of writing’. Throughout the novel, the characters experience the plague, famine and foreign occupation – all of which happened in real life. However, this is historical fiction – Manzoni invents characters and has to resolve the novel by inventing fictional occurrences. A historiographer would point out there are power dynamics within historical records and even the records might not be telling the true story. Is it possible to make ‘truth’ the main goal of fictional writing? At what point do you have to sacrifice historical accuracy to make the novel function as a story? When does the novel become ‘historical fiction’ and not just a recounting of history?
Religion: Religion crops up in many instances in the novel. The female protagonist, Lucia, takes refuge in a convent and meets a friar, who murdered someone, and a nun who isn’t religious, based on the real-life Nun of Monza. Previous ‘evil’ characters upon meeting Lucia, or seeing the truth in religion, repent their sins and regret their past actions. These characters are all complex characters; however, Manzoni shows through all of them that the one true saving force is the faith in Christianity. All the characters who repent are ‘saved’ from horrible endings. Manzoni in his youth was anti-Christian, however as he got older, he became a devout Catholic – his characters reflect this reversion of faith and his view of the Christian truth. Knowing this, do you think this makes the novel more or less autobiographical?
Linguistic Importance: In the early 19th century, there was still a debate on which Italian dialect should become the literary language of Italy after reunification. Manzoni’s wanted reunification and believed Italy needed a common, standardised language. The Florentine Tuscan dialect was the most popular literary language, because of Dante and the other poets from that region. Even though he wasn’t fluent in Florentine dialect, in 1842 Manzoni removed most of the words in the Lombard dialect and changed the name of the main character to make the novel more accessible. Many phrases from this book are still quoted in everyday Italian. Was he right to write in a language that he wasn’t fluent in for the sake of national unity?
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That’s it for this week! We’d like to thank this week’s writers: Katarina Harrison-Gaze.
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