Pacification and conflict in Vittorio Alfieri's L'Antidoto

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate the aspects of conflict and pacification in Vittorio Alfieri's comic production, particularly in the comedy L'Antidoto. In the play, the author proposes a constitutionalist resolution that closes, according to Arnaldo Di Benedetto, the political tetralogy on an optimistic note, in a peaceful recomposition halfway between the real and the fantastic. The anti-French condemnation sealed by the satirical work Il Misogallo, is thus followed in Alfieri's last artistic phase by a search for pacification, which turns out to be possible and plannable only in the illusory world of utopia proposed by the comedy. In this context, the reinterpretation of his political positions prove to be interesting, also in light of the censorship to which the comedies were initially subjected, then published in 1806.