Abstract

The article examines the new expanded edition of "Scrittori e popolo" to which Alberto Asor Rosa has added an essay on Italian postmodern literature, characterized by a change of the anthropological and cultural environment with the mass that has now replaced the People as a social group. The article points out that "Scrittori e massa" identifies the Freudian category of discontent as the key feature of the contemporary literature. In addition to this, the author of the article dwells on the relationship between "Scrittori e popolo" e "Scrittori e massa", chronologically distant and nonetheless so close to each other, stressing that today critics needs more than ever to confront with its tradition (particularly that of the Sixties) in order to verify and inherit its instruments and values.