Las epístolas del abismo de Ugo Foscolo: Tres modalidades del suicidio discursivo en Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis

Abstract

In his best known work (Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis) eighteenth-century Italian author Ugo Foscolo compiles and explores motifs and techniques that were traditionally associated with the epistolary genre. This reflection materializes itself on three discursive  levels: the discourse of love (search of individual plenitude through an object of desire), political discourse (fight for national independence and unity), and literary discourse (development of both a new form of expression and a new readership). On each of these levels the contradictions of the protagonist, Jacopo Ortis, place him in a dead end from which he can only escape through self-destruction. This essay aims at discussing each of these levels in relation to the epistolary structure of the novel.