Letteratura demoralizzata?

Abstract

The refusal, which is certainly correct, to ascribe any didactic or edifying purpose to art; the frequent conviction that a better knowledge of psychical processes, revealing the conditionings of human free will, has remarkably lessened the space for moral judgement; and lastly the ascertainment of the great variety of cultural and moral trends which are present in our society: here are the three elements that nowadays seem to justify a position which excludes the legitimacy of any moral point of view in evaluating a literary work. Nevertheless such a conclusion is not truly entitled by none of these elements, even more so if we think that any kind of art which describes human relations must necessarily imply moral questions and, furthermore, literature can exert a moral influence on the reading public which is especially strong, because it is able to reach the depths of personality in virtue of the process of identification that takes place between the reader and dramatis personae.