«Quel che mi pare è che, se non altro, sarà un po’ diversa dalle altre vite proprie» L’analisi de I miei ricordi di Massimo d’Azeglio e della continuazione dell’autobiografia dazegliana di Giuseppe Torelli
An analysis of Massimo d'Azeglio's I miei ricordi and of the Continuation of d'Azeglio's Autobiography by Giuseppe Torelli

Summary/Abstract: In the Risorgimento, the autobiographical genre not only represented the leading figures of the period to the readers, but also acquired the socio-cultural function of reflecting on the historical, political, military and cultural events of the unification process. In his posthumous autobiography, I miei ricordi (1867), although apparently narrating his life and artistic-literary-political career, d’Azeglio makes use of digressions to express his thoughts on various Risorgimento themes and events. However, the work remained unfinished and Torelli, a friend and colleague of the author, attempted to complete it. The nine chapters added were published in 1870 in the volume Lettere di Massimo d’Azeglio a Giuseppe Torelli with fragments of this in continuation of Miei ricordi. The title refers to a hybrid work: an epistolary, an autobiography and a biography. The aim of this paper is to analyse the treated and concealed themes of the works, the differences between the autobiographical narrator of the Saint Augustine type and the Voltairean type, and the transition from the autobiographical to the biographical style. It is also examined whether Torelli, by adding the author’s non-autograph thoughts and fragments to the work, had given the novel a new meaning, as he dealt with certain themes that d’Azeglio probably wanted to conceal. It was precisely because of these added parts that Torelli’s work, like so many others in post-unification Italy, contributed to the realisation of the past so that a truly united Italian society and state could emerge. This has to do with the issue of collective memory that creates a cultural and moral framework through which the nation defines itself: this approach is fruitful in the analysis of d’Azeglio’s work and that of Torelli.

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