I. U. Tarchetti
Iginio Ugo Tarchetti was an Italian writer born in 1841 in San Salvatore Monferrato, during a time when Italy was fragmented into multiple sovereign states. He participated in the Risorgimento, the movement for Italian unification, which greatly influenced his outlook and writing. Tarchetti left the military due to his outspoken critiques of hierarchy and obedience, leading him to align with the scapigliatura, a group of avant-garde artists and writers known for their unconventional and often shocking expressions against the artistic norms of their time. His literary contributions include gothic stories that explore themes of fear and existential dread, often drawing comparisons to Edgar Allan Poe. Tarchetti's final novel, "Fosca," delves into the complexities of desire and self-destruction through the lens of its tragic heroine, illustrating a conflict between societal appearances and inner turmoil. Although he gained some posthumous recognition, particularly through adaptations of his work, including the film "Passione d'Amore," Tarchetti remains largely overlooked in contemporary Italian literature. His writings, though of historical significance, are primarily studied by specialists rather than the general public.
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I. U. Tarchetti
- Born: 1839
- Birthplace: San Salvatore Monferrato, Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy
- Died: 1869
Biography
Iginio Ugo Tarchetti was born in 1841 in San Salvatore Monferrato in the province of Alessandria in what is now Italy. At the time the Italian peninsula was divided into a number of sovereign countries, including the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the south and the Papal States (ruled directly by the Pope) in central Italy. The north was largely under French and Austrian domination.
Tarchetti studied in Casale and Valenza before joining the military at the age of eighteen. He thus was involved in the wars of Italian unification, the Risorgimento, and they appear to have had a strong effect upon him. In 1865, he had to leave military service as a result of his persistently writing screeds against all forms of hierarchy and subordination, and particularly against the organization of the military and its demands of obedience. He soon became associated with the scapigliatura, literally “the scruffy ones,” a group of bohemian artists and writers who concentrated on developing stylistic extremes as a means of revolt against the literary and artistic establishment. They also deliberately engaged in deviant behavior in order to shock their staid contemporaries who. Because they set out to shock the very people who held the keys to critical success, they ended up being scorned and neglected by the literary world.
Tarchetti wrote a number of stories in the gothic style, which were reminiscent of the works of American author Edgar Allen Poe. In one, a man develops an irrational fear of the letter U, while another features an elixir of immortality whose gift of everlasting life quickly turns into a horrifying curse.
Tarchetti’s final novel, Fosca (translated as Passion by Lawrence Venuti), tells the story of a miserable, homely young woman in the provincial town of Parma. Obsessed with a man she cannot have, a handsome soldier who does not even notice she exists, the eponymous heroine steadily spirals downward to self-destruction. The story is intended to illustrate the tensions between appearances and the inner spirit, but modern readers are apt to see her not as a tragic heroine, but as a contemptible weakling. French director Ettore Scola made it into a movie under the title Passione d’Amore (the passion of love) in 1981, in which the heroine is portrayed as clinging and grotesque rather than sympathetic.
Shortly after Fosca was published, Tarchetti died in Milan, only two years before Rome would be wrested from Pope Pius IX and the unification of Italy would be completed. After Tarchetti’s death, a collection of his verse was published under the title Disjecta (fragments). However, he has been almost completely forgotten by most Italians, and is studied only by specialists in the period.