Abstract

The essay examines the function of shame and virtue in the first three epochs of Alfieri’s Vita. The investigation shows how shame contributes to the triggering of narrative strategies based on the dialectic between dissimulation and unveiling, up to its ironic reversal in the farce I poeti. Taking into account a centuries-old reflection, the essay analyses the centrality of shame in the narrative of Alfieri’s youth also in relation to virtue. The aim is to demonstrate how much the dynamics of judgement and the external gaze, central to the phenomenology of shame and virtue, influence the path outlined by the author in his autobiography up to the literary conversion.