Delinquenza, genio e follia: primi sondaggi sul dibattito positivista nei periodici della ‘Nuova Italia’

Abstract

The essay investigates the debate that developed in Italian national journals around the main theories of Cesare Lombroso’s anthropological school, focusing in particular on the equivalence between genius and madness and on the definition of the “criminal man.” Lombroso’s research gave rise to numerous psycho-pathological studies on writers and artists, aimed at identifying the features of genius in their works. At the same time, the category of the “criminal man” also drew on literature, as certain literary cases were examined by the anthropological school as prefigurations in which to detect the distinctive traits that, according to Lombroso, characterized the criminal personality. The investigation is based on an examination of several journals published between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that received Lombrosian theories—at times with enthusiasm, at others with irony. The analysis reveals the breadth of a debate that extended beyond national boundaries and crossed the fields of science, criticism, and literature, highlighting the circulation of positivist ideas within fin-de-siècle culture.