"A doubling phenomenon". Laughter, emotions and symmetrical logic in Italian modernism

This paper focuses on four major exponents of Italian modernism: Luigi Pirandello, Italo Svevo, Aldo Palazzeschi, and Carlo Emilio Gadda. Individual differences aside, their work is characterized by what can be defined as absolute laughter – i.e., a tendency to question the overall seriousness of life as a whole. This applies, first of all, to the implied author’s attitude towards the world; Pirandello’s umorismo, Svevo’s irony, Palazzeschi’s controdolore, and Gadda’s satire all share this universal, all-encompassing value. In this respect they are not far from Freud’s definition of humor, as they all imply an infinite degree of detachment from life, and ultimately represent a defense mechanism from excessive emotional involvement.Absolute laughter can be seen, in fact, as a reaction to a tragic/pathetic view of life, whereby emotional involvement can only coincide with infinite suffering. In the four authors at issue, this process takes the shape of a splitting of the object (Klein) – in other words, life is considered as absolutely tragic and inherently laughable at the same time. Within such a framework, modernist laughter is the opposite of emotion (namely a defensive reaction from it), but on the other hand it is based on a very similar process; to borrow Matte Blanco’s terminology, absolute laughter also has an infinitizing nature, i.e. it implies an extreme, undifferentiated detachment from the world in its entirety. Despite often displaying a ratiocinating appearance, this kind of laughter is closer to the symmetrical logic of emotion rather than to rational, asymmetrical logic; after illustrating this aspect with regard to the implied author’s stance, this essay moves on to analyze the characters’ behavior (especially in Pirandello and Svevo) from a similar perspective.