Resumen de Thornton Wilder and Italy. Part II: Wilder’s Roman Sojourn and His Works of Fiction

Stephen J. Rojcewicz jr., Judith P. Hallett

• English

  Thornton Wilder’s time at the American Academy in Rome was his 'golden year', an inexhaustible fountain of the Muses. His two novels set in Italy, The Cabala (1926) and The Ides of March (1948), derive many of their motifs from Roman history and literature, as filtered through contemporary Italian personalities and social groups. His experiences in Italy and engagement with Italian culture pervade his masterpieces: Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). His last novel, Theophilus North, combines Wilder’s fascination with archaeology, studied at the AAR, with Homeric and Italian themes. Italy, for Wilder, meant the full magnificence of European civilization, from the Etruscans through the Renaissance to the moderns

• italiano

  Il periodo trascorso alla American Academy in Rome fu per Thornton Wilder il suo “anno d’oro”, l’inesauribile fonte delle Muse. I suoi due romanzi ambientati in Italia, The Cabala (1926) e The Ides of March (1948) riprendono molti motivi dalla storia e dalla letteratura di Roma, filtrata attraverso personalità e gruppi sociali dell’Italia contemporanea. Le sue esperienze in Italia e il suo interesse per la cultura italiana pervadono i suoi capolavori: Our Town (1938) e The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). Il suo ultimo romanzo, Theophilus North, unisce l’attrazione per l’archeologia, studiata alla American Academy, con temi omerici e italiani. Per Wilder l’Italia significava il massimo splendore della civiltà europea, dagli Etruschi ai moderni, passando attraverso il Rinascimento.