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Cover Heroes of Love
series "Intersezioni"
pp. 160, Brossura, 978-88-15-29313-8
publication year 2021

MASSIMO FUSILLO

Heroes of Love

Tales of Couples, Seduction and Folly

Traditionally linked to the public sphere, the “hero” figure embodies the underlying values shared by a community. But who are the heroes of love – the private experience par excellence? Throughout the ages, what have human cultures identified as heroic love? Is it the love displayed by solid, faithful couples, like Romeo and Juliet (or Superman and Lois Lane), a romantic microcosm transcending space and time which meets its only limit in death? Is it the unrequited love of Phaedra and Madame Butterfly, an unspeakable illness, both physical and mental, which often leads to self-destructive madness? Or is it the free, subversive love of Don Juan and Carmen, which reveals itself through seduction, intoxicating beauty, and sensuality? The book describes the different ways in which the feeling of love has been conveyed in the tales of heroes and heroines in literature, melodrama, and cinema, but also explores examples of reality-based loves involving practical compromises and complex entanglements.

Massimo Fusillo teaches Comparative Literature at the University of L’Aquila.

Premessa
I. La coppia contro il mondo
1. Amori simmetrici (i romanzi antichi)
2. Adolescenti perseguitati (Romeo e Giulietta)
3. La cancellazione dell’io: «Io sono Heathcliff» (Cime tempestose)
4. Amore e morte sulla scena musicale (La Traviata, Tristano e Isotta)
5. Due geni del male: Diabolik ed Eva Kant
6. Figure reali (Wallis e Edward, Lady D e Hasnat Khan)
7. Eroi della differenza (Maurice, Adèle)
II. La seduzione come sovversione
1. Un «sì esteso sentimento»: la passione panica e cosmica di Don Giovanni
2. Strategie del desiderio: Le relazioni pericolose
3. Carmen: fra alterità esotica e libertà sessuale
4. Sdoppiamento e seduzione: Sleuth
III. La follia autodistruttiva
1. L’eros come malattia indicibile: Fedra
2. Una fragile immortalità: Madama Butterfly e altre
3. Melodrammi cinematografici (Ophüls, von Trier)
Riferimenti bibliografici
Indice dei nomi e dei personaggi