La narrazione umoristica di Federico Seismit-Doda

Abstract

In 1846, Federico Seismit-Doda (Dubrovnik, 1825 – Rome, 1893), an Italian politician and patriot originally from Dalmatia, published the text Studi drammatici. Ore di un condannato… alla scena in two consecutive issues of the Venetian periodical Il Gondoliere. In his contribution, Seismit-Doda recounts the (mis)fortunes of a man named Luigi Ruffoli, a dramatist who, three years after making a successful theatrical debut, staged a comedy that got booed by the crowd. Apart from the analysis of the intersecting points between the biographical details of the author and the protagonist, based on which we can assume that the text is autobiographical, the paper explores the peculiarities of his humorous writing style that emulates the Sternean model. To convey humour, the author uses narrative techniques and rhetorical devices such as metafiction, interruptions, and parodies the language and conventions, thus demonstrating his mastery of the humorous narrative. On the other hand, understood within the broader context of Italian literature, the experimental nature of the text Ultime ore di un condannato… alla scena points to the fact that Federico Seismit-Doda was inclined to writing techniques typical of the nineteenth-century Italian humorous narrative.