Open Access Unrestricted online access star

The fundamental work of Carlo Michelstaedter (Gorizia 1887-1910), the essay entitled Persuasion and Rhetoric, written in 1910, raises the issue of truth through a word deprived of its communicative meaning, subjected to extreme laceration, and sacrificed in pursuit of utopian persuasion. Indeed, persuasion represents the absolute anti-rhetorical utopia, which aims to strip away everything accessory to the essentiality of being; however, it is marked by an impossibility: the nature of language, which cannot renounce communicating a purpose or a vital desire. Therefore, while it approaches life, rhetoric also undermines thought, and words become impoverished, becoming that commonplace through which society and culture have passed. Michelstaedter began the work as a thesis for his degree at the Faculty of Letters at the University of Florence. He had previously studied mathematics in Vienna, before finally turning to classical poetry and philosophy. The Dialogue on Health was written in parallel that same year, and reflects, through a Socratic dialogue between two young friends, the author's inner tension in the face of the awareness of death and the ethical will to give existence an authentic form, freed from the dependencies and pleasures of life. Both works were completed on the eve of Carlo's suicide at the age of twenty-three; contemporary readers did not hesitate to describe it as "metaphysical suicide." In the centenary of the events, today's readers will recognize one of the most acute thinkers of the century; also the writer who, like the self-portrait on the cover of our edition, will never grow old.

Creative Commons Licence cc by cc https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

spa

Freely available e-book