In Search of Lost Pleasure

What happened to pleasure? One hundred and thirty-five years ago, in 1889, Gabriele D'Annunzio's The Child of Pleasure was published. Written when he was just 25, this youthful, sensual and provocative novel introduced a "feral note," as Benedetto Croce described it, into Italian literature, which was then largely dominated by Verga's verismo. What remains today of that ‘pleasure’? And who shall continue to nurture it through a narrative of the twenty-first century that seems increasingly attuned to the theme of 'discomfort'? The response is offered by Giordano Bruno Guerri, a leading expert on D'Annunzio, historian and president of the Vittoriale, and by Giuseppe Culicchia, curator of the new Radici festival and author of a striking début from 30 years ago, where the notion of pleasure seems to wane into a fleeting mirage: Tutti giù per terra.