Abstract

A recent book edited by P. Antonello and G. Fornari (Identità e desiderio. La teoria mimetica e la letteratura italiana) offers the opportunity to discuss René Girard's «mimetic» theory and to take stock of its reception by Italian literary criticism. The book, collecting essays on Dante, Manzoni, Svevo, Deledda and other Italian authors, displays the effectiveness of Girard's method, though through on considering the fifty years elapse from the publication of Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque (1961), we must admit that the ideas of the French critic have often been surrounded by suspicion or misunderstanding.