Phd in STUDIES IN MEDIAEVAL PHILOLOGY, PALEOGRAPHY, ROMANCE
STUDIES

Thesis title: Cosmologie di natura fra incanto e disincanto. Prospettive di critica ecologica a partire dal misticismo femminile italiano (XVII)

This transdisciplinary study investigates the relationship between Western culture and nature, focusing on the connections between two pivotal historical periods: the current climate crisis and the 17th-century genesis of the modern concept of nature.During the 17th century, a confluence of cultural, social, and political developments contributed to the formalisation of a vision of nature as an object, characterized by its knowability and manipulability. The present study hypothesises that if the climate crisis is determined by cultural motivations, the cultural process of objectifying nature represents one of these motivations.The 'disenchanted' model of nature as an object has progressively supplanted the idea of a 'living' nature, populated by superhuman intelligences capable of acting and significantly affecting the sphere of human affairs. This paradigm shift, from an "enchanted" world to a more scientific, mathematical and mechanical model, has profound implications for our understanding of the relationship between Western culture and nature. The primary objective of this research is to shed light on alternative narratives that offer novel insights into the relationship between Western culture and nature. By exploring these alternative narratives, we seek to stimulate a rethinking of this relationship in contemporary contexts. The investigation of Italian female mysticism will reveal 'cosmologies of nature' governed by a non-objectifying gaze towards natural reality, but, on the contrary, open to the possibility of trespassing between subject and object, observer and observed, natural and supernatural.In this way, it will be possible to highlight analytical tools useful for extrapolating eco-conscious representations, 'enchanted' even in contemporary literature. The final section of this study will provide a detailed examination of two 'fantastic' novels, thereby substantiating the aforementioned hypothesis.