Abstract

Through a close reading of Svevo’s and Freud’s works, this essay aims to define the characteristics of a cultural and social discontent rooted in the nineteenth century. A parallel analysis is offered of the last page of La coscienza di Zeno and various passages of Civilization and its Discontent. Svevo and Freud are able to understand and explain a major social contradiction: well-being and civilization are founded on repression and fear; the more advanced a society is, the more it coerces the population to suppress natural drives. Such a comparison is made possible by Darwin’s ideas, in particular by the social re-interpretation of Darwinism in the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. For this reason, the essay is also focused on Svevo’s darwinian writings, as well as on a number of short stories such as Lo specifico del dottor Menghi and Una burla riuscita.