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Per un’ermeneutica dell’arte. Recensione a Lire les images di Johann Michel
No full textThis review discusses Johann Michel’s Lire les images. Herméneutique de l’art (PUF, 2025), emphasizing its original contribution to philosophy of art seen through the lens of an approach grounded in philosophical hermeneutics. Michel articulates a genuinely hermeneutic approach to the “imaginal,” understood as a lived, embodied, and historically sedimented event of meaning. Drawing primarily on Gadamer and Ricoeur, he builds the book as a dialogical space in which art history, semiotics, iconology and visual studies, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, pragmatism, and cultural anthropology intersect without being reduced to a unique paradigm. The review highlights Michel’s capacity to reveal how artworks emerge from, and return to, the lifeworld, preserving traces of experience and configuring new pathways of interpretation. By connecting the imaginal with the ontological dimension of historicity, Michel shows how the artwork continues to walk through time, interpellating us at the same time as embodied subjects, provoked and engaged by the work of art at the aesthetic level of affects and feelings, and as interpretive subjects who put in place a methodical distanciation necessary to explain them more in order to understand them better. The review argues that this book represents a significant advancement in the philosophy of the image and a compelling expansion of hermeneutics into the visual domain.This review discusses Johann Michel’s Lire les images. Herméneutique de l’art (PUF, 2025), emphasizing its original contribution to philosophy of art seen through the lens of an approach grounded in philosophical hermeneutics. Michel articulates a genuinely hermeneutic approach to the “imaginal,” understood as a lived, embodied, and historically sedimented event of meaning. Drawing primarily on Gadamer and Ricoeur, he builds the book as a dialogical space in which art history, semiotics, iconology and visual studies, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, pragmatism, and cultural anthropology intersect without being reduced to a unique paradigm. The review highlights Michel’s capacity to reveal how artworks emerge from, and return to, the lifeworld, preserving traces of experience and configuring new pathways of interpretation. By connecting the imaginal with the ontological dimension of historicity, Michel shows how the artwork continues to walk through time, interpellating us at the same time as embodied subjects, provoked and engaged by the work of art at the aesthetic level of affects and feelings, and as interpretive subjects who put in place a methodical distanciation necessary to explain them more in order to understand them better. The review argues that this book represents a significant advancement in the philosophy of the image and a compelling expansion of hermeneutics into the visual domain
The Sublime Experience of Biodiversity. Rethinking Kantian Sublime in the Age of Ecological Crisis
No full textL’esperienza sublime della biodiversità. Ripensare il sublime kantiano nell’era della crisi ecologica
Il presente articolo indaga il rapporto tra biodiversità ed esperienza estetica, proponendo un approccio non convenzionale per comprendere la diversità biologica in termini filosofici. La prospettiva più diffusa nell’estetica ambientale contemporanea sottolinea l’importanza di preservare la diversità biologica, considerando il valore estetico della bellezza uno dei pilastri per la difesa della diversità delle forme di vita sul nostro pianeta. La prospettiva qui proposta si discosta da tale approccio. Infatti, il presente articolo si interroga sulla possibilità di immaginare un’esperienza estetica della biodiversità che vada oltre il semplice apprezzamento della bellezza delle singole specie animali e vegetali; piuttosto, invita a concentrare l’attenzione sulla grandiosità della biodiversità stessa, sottolineandone la natura sublime.Nella prima parte dell’articolo verrà esaminata l’idea di esperienze estetiche legate alla biodiversità, delineando l’orientamento teorico che informa l’argomentazione (paragrafo 1); quindi, si analizzeranno brevemente le differenti relazioni estetiche che bellezza e sublime instaurano con gli enti naturali (paragrafo 2). Particolare attenzione sarà riservata all’interpretazione storica del sublime offerta da Immanuel Kant nella Critica del Giudizio, in particolare nella sezione dedicata all’Analitica del Sublime (paragrafo 3).Nella seconda parte dell’articolo discuteremo infine il rilievo che il concetto di sublime assume nel contesto dell’attuale crisi ecologica e in relazione alla perdita globale di biodiversità. Riteniamo, infatti, che l’apprezzamento dell’estetica del sublime possa rafforzare il nostro impegno nella conservazione della diversità biologica, non solo evocando sentimenti di meraviglia e rispetto per la natura, ma anche rivelando la complessità e la fragilità delle reti viventi di cui facciamo parte.This paper investigates the relationship between biodiversity and aesthetic experience, proposing an unconventional approach to understand the biological diversity in philosophical terms. The most widely shared perspective in contemporary Environmental Aesthetics emphasises the importance of preserving biological diversity, considering the aesthetic value of beauty one of the pillars for the defence of the diversity of life forms on our planet. The perspective proposed here distances itself from this approach. In fact, this article questions whether we can imagine an aesthetic experience of biodiversity that surpasses the mere appreciation of the beauty of individual animal and plant species; instead, it encourages a focus on the grandeur of biodiversity itself, highlighting its sublime nature.
In the first part of this article, we will examine the idea of aesthetic experiences related to biodiversity, outlining the theoretical standpoint that informs our argument (paragraph 1); then we will briefly analyze the different aesthetic relationship that beauty and the sublime establish with natural entities (paragraph 2). Particular attention will be given to the historical interpretation of the sublime given by Immanuel Kant in the Critique of Judgement, especially in the section dedicated to the Analytic of Sublime (paragraph 3).
In the second part of the article, we will finally discuss the significance of the sublime in the context of the current ecological crisis and in relation to the global loss of biodiversity. We believe that an appreciation of the aesthetics of the sublime can improve our commitment to preserving biological diversity, not only by evoking feelings of wonder and respect for nature but also by revealing the complexity and fragility of the living networks of which we are part
Paesaggi dell’interstizio. Per un Illuminismo post-coloniale
Full text linkThe landscape of tomorrow can be imagined today starting from events currently emerging from what Michel Foucault called “the interstice”. According to him, the interstice is the gray area that lies between the fundamental choices and exclusion’s strategies that every culture accomplishes to affirm its identity. Some of these interstices have been brought to light precisely in the context of landscape theories, notably by Gilles Clément. Others, however, are now emerging in political fields where landscape is not the object of a theory, but a reference for struggle and contestation. Thus, starting from a visit to the 2024 Venice Art Biennale, this essay outlines the intertwining between some interstitial movements of today - post-colonial studies, migrations, queer identities - and their impact on a possible landscape to come: not identitarian but fluid, inclusive and open towards a new idea of cosmopolitism.The landscape of tomorrow can be imagined today starting from events currently emerging from what Michel Foucault called “the interstice”. According to him, the interstice is the gray area that lies between the fundamental choices and exclusion’s strategies that every culture accomplishes to affirm its identity. Some of these interstices have been brought to light precisely in the context of landscape theories, notably by Gilles Clément. Others, however, are now emerging in political fields where landscape is not the object of a theory, but a reference for struggle and contestation. Thus, starting from a visit to the 2024 Venice Art Biennale, this essay outlines the intertwining between some interstitial movements of today - post-colonial studies, migrations, queer identities - and their impact on a possible landscape to come: not identitarian but fluid, inclusive and open towards a new idea of cosmopolitism
Landscape in Technological Image The Complex Aesthetics Perspective
Full text linkIn the Anthropocene, what contribution to landscape design and creation can the technological image, whose action, or agency, is global in scope?Beyond being a functional backdrop for human action and an object of images provided by devices designed for control in virtual mappings and telematic geolocations, can the landscape also be the subject of technological images that are able to promote a new paradigm of reciprocity between man and cosmos?
In an attempt to answer such questions, this contribution is aimed at reconsidering in epistemological terms certain notions of the aesthetics of the technological image and, in particular, of the audiovisual image: immersivity, synesthesia and Stimmung.In the perspective of the development of a complex aesthetics, it is hypothesized that the aesthetic experience of the artistic audiovisual image of the landscape can potentially promote a sensitive knowledge of the environment, capable of contributing to the development of an ecological sensitivity.In the Anthropocene, what contribution to landscape design and creation can the technological image, whose action, or agency, is global in scope?Beyond being a functional backdrop for human action and an object of images provided by devices designed for control in virtual mappings and telematic geolocations, can the landscape also be the subject of technological images that are able to promote a new paradigm of reciprocity between man and cosmos?
In an attempt to answer such questions, this contribution is aimed at reconsidering in epistemological terms certain notions of the aesthetics of the technological image and, in particular, of the audiovisual image: immersivity, synesthesia and Stimmung.In the perspective of the development of a complex aesthetics, it is hypothesized that the aesthetic experience of the artistic audiovisual image of the landscape can potentially promote a sensitive knowledge of the environment, capable of contributing to the development of an ecological sensitivity
Tra forma e senso. Kandinsky e Bergson. Correlazioni fenomenologiche verso una fisica dell’anima
Full text linkThe mode of evolution from figurative to abstract and from abstract to concrete in Kandinsky’s work seems to follow the path of a Bersonianan creative evolution. From the first melodic paintings to the explosion of his improvisations, the aesthetic material contracts and condenses itself in a pure shape with no connections with the representativeness. This eidetic shape is also the result of a phenomenological approach and analysis, revealing correlating meanings in an interesting living time of perception. Oscillations between shape and content, color and sound in resonance space will become for Kandisnky scope for the constitution of a possible aesthetic phenomenological experience, that looks for unveiled qualities. For Kandinsky and Bergson the quality in which an element contracts or thickens itself is in fact a new spiritualized value.
Kandinsky looks for a real intense time of perception, of creation, of fruition that finds in the real movement and the Bergsonian durée réelle his theoretical confirmation. At the same time his creative act seems to be able to fit into the dual modality of Bergsonianan life of consciusness: frist like an élan vital and explosive action of abstract expressionism and subsequently as a work of qualitative contraction and condensation of vibrations that create a new kind of material. Tensions for the philosopher and the painter are the material established to ensure continuity between real and ideal. The experience in the field of sensibility for Kandinsky follows the paths of intuition and intelligence in the dual Bergsonian modality of a double vital and evolutionary movement : listening the melodic curvature of soul that exposes and explodes sense and forms and contracting itself in a rhythmic tension of Bergsonianan durée, so that tension will be an orchestral partiture where the flow could be read. The aesthetic object presents itself as a movement towards the fullness of a eidetic unity, paying attention to its morphogenetic movement towards the possibility to take shape of that movement.
In fact, the artist’s gaze is a grasp on the movements of being, it is a gaze that doesn’t leave the movement of Sense, and like music tends to guarantee its continuity, The flow that he follows is the flow of music that he tries to become more and more concrete. The form of the Sense is instead correlation of contracted quality understood as expressive density, like a quantum. Sense and form objectify themself to create abstract art. Shape that can condense a flow of a special time of consciousness letting move its inner sound and contracting and diluting itself in a vectorial sense that can orchestrate forms and write scores. Sense insinuates itself into material and the same material reveals, redefines, redirects. The Sense of the form is pure quality in progression, vibranting eternity in the first expressionism period, and expressive density in the following Bauhaus period until it becomes an organic complete unveiling resonant shape. Unveiling qualities flow as a bridge between spirit and material, speaking about a deep interesting space-time that suggests a hidden and special physics of soul. The bridge that can reveal and connects possible inner worlds is a space-time experience of a living inner time of perception that make sense in the music. Space and time vibrate and grow in rhythmic resonance until becoming an organon, a pure body. Space time will become correlation and redefinition scope of essence, form and soul.The mode of evolution from figurative to abstract and from abstract to concrete in Kandinsky’s work seems to follow the path of a Bersonianan creative evolution. From the first melodic paintings to the explosion of his improvisations, the aesthetic material contracts and condenses itself in a pure shape with no connections with the representativeness. This eidetic shape is also the result of a phenomenological approach and analysis, revealing correlating meanings in an interesting living time of perception. Oscillations between shape and content, color and sound in resonance space will become for Kandisnky scope for the constitution of a possible aesthetic phenomenological experience, that looks for unveiled qualities. For Kandinsky and Bergson the quality in which an element contracts or thickens itself is in fact a new spiritualized value.
Kandinsky looks for a real intense time of perception, of creation, of fruition that finds in the real movement and the Bergsonian durée réelle his theoretical confirmation. At the same time his creative act seems to be able to fit into the dual modality of Bergsonianan life of consciusness: frist like an élan vital and explosive action of abstract expressionism and subsequently as a work of qualitative contraction and condensation of vibrations that create a new kind of material. Tensions for the philosopher and the painter are the material established to ensure continuity between real and ideal. The experience in the field of sensibility for Kandinsky follows the paths of intuition and intelligence in the dual Bergsonian modality of a double vital and evolutionary movement : listening the melodic curvature of soul that exposes and explodes sense and forms and contracting itself in a rhythmic tension of Bergsonianan durée, so that tension will be an orchestral partiture where the flow could be read. The aesthetic object presents itself as a movement towards the fullness of a eidetic unity, paying attention to its morphogenetic movement towards the possibility to take shape of that movement.
In fact, the artist’s gaze is a grasp on the movements of being, it is a gaze that doesn’t leave the movement of Sense, and like music tends to guarantee its continuity, The flow that he follows is the flow of music that he tries to become more and more concrete. The form of the Sense is instead correlation of contracted quality understood as expressive density, like a quantum. Sense and form objectify themself to create abstract art. Shape that can condense a flow of a special time of consciousness letting move its inner sound and contracting and diluting itself in a vectorial sense that can orchestrate forms and write scores. Sense insinuates itself into material and the same material reveals, redefines, redirects. The Sense of the form is pure quality in progression, vibranting eternity in the first expressionism period, and expressive density in the following Bauhaus period until it becomes an organic complete unveiling resonant shape. Unveiling qualities flow as a bridge between spirit and material, speaking about a deep interesting space-time that suggests a hidden and special physics of soul. The bridge that can reveal and connects possible inner worlds is a space-time experience of a living inner time of perception that make sense in the music. Space and time vibrate and grow in rhythmic resonance until becoming an organon, a pure body. Space time will become correlation and redefinition scope of essence, form and soul
Artificial “intelligence” and the ontology of art: A phenomenological inquiry
Full text link The article explores the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the realm of art, drawing from phenomenological perspectives. Firstly, it aims to clarify specific terms frequently used in philosophical and technological debates, thereby enhancing dialogue in the field and addressing underlying issues. The article focuses on questioning the role of art as an event of manifestation and explores the implications of AI on the relationship between art and Truth. In this regard, the analysis considers whether AI-generated art can truly engage in the ontological event as the human-created art, or if it merely remains a product of computational processes, lacking genuine existential depth. The goal is to return to the fundamental question of being of the artwork, seeking to understand how AI challenges or redefines traditional concepts of art’s essence.
The article explores the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the realm of art, drawing from phenomenological perspectives. Firstly, it aims to clarify specific terms frequently used in philosophical and technological debates, thereby enhancing dialogue in the field and addressing underlying issues. The article focuses on questioning the role of art as an event of manifestation and explores the implications of AI on the relationship between art and Truth. In this regard, the analysis considers whether AI-generated art can truly engage in the ontological event as the human-created art, or if it merely remains a product of computational processes, lacking genuine existential depth. The goal is to return to the fundamental question of being of the artwork, seeking to understand how AI challenges or redefines traditional concepts of art’s essence
Where Monsters Graze or the Province. Fantastic Practices of Dis-Institution
Full text linkThe contribution aims to explore the theme of disgust within the rejected substrate of the monstrous. While there is a fascination with what we perceive as deformed – be it body, matter, or space – this fascination often struggles to mature into an approach that em- braces the monstrous as a design strategy. This research seeks to frame the disruptive potentials of the monstrous as generative for the broader culture of design, reintroducing value to concepts and practices of dislocation. Starting from an interpretation of the pri- mary monstrous, the mother (Braidotti, 1994), the study intends to offer an overview that spans visual arts and performative theories, relating this density to its spatial application potentials. Through the relationship between perception and imagination, the paper pro- poses openings towards the wild (Metta, 2021), suggesting spatialized methodologies of the monstrous as privileged practices of action in marginal urban contexts, such as the province. By examining cases that address the legitimacy of bodies and their transition, and forms of investigation linking the liminality of territory with that of the individual (Miguel Vila, Fiordilatte, 2021, Padovaland, 2020, Comfrotless 2023; HPO, Provinciale, 2023; basso profilo, CAMPOTTO: accordi di comunità verso un nuovo piano di stazione, 2023 ), the paper investigates the oscillation between rejection and imagination, theoriz- ing monstrous practices as fantastic opportunities to transcend the established spatial con- ditions. The selected works offer a means to consider the transformation of rejected hu- man and territorial bodies into non-institutionalized potential for regeneration. The article works on the ambivalence between the warning of the uncanny and the vision of the transformed contexts, the conception of a space of dissent and grafts. Such viscosities, despite their complexity, retain a potentially generative disorder, not to be suppressed but to be engaged in a discursively implicated practice with the unexpected, bringing human- ity closer to a concept of wild, ever-changing transformation.The contribution aims to explore the theme of disgust within the rejected substrate of the monstrous. While there is a fascination with what we perceive as deformed – be it body, matter, or space – this fascination often struggles to mature into an approach that em- braces the monstrous as a design strategy. This research seeks to frame the disruptive potentials of the monstrous as generative for the broader culture of design, reintroducing value to concepts and practices of dislocation. Starting from an interpretation of the pri- mary monstrous, the mother (Braidotti, 1994), the study intends to offer an overview that spans visual arts and performative theories, relating this density to its spatial application potentials. Through the relationship between perception and imagination, the paper pro- poses openings towards the wild (Metta, 2021), suggesting spatialized methodologies of the monstrous as privileged practices of action in marginal urban contexts, such as the province. By examining cases that address the legitimacy of bodies and their transition, and forms of investigation linking the liminality of territory with that of the individual (Miguel Vila, Fiordilatte, 2021, Padovaland, 2020, Comfrotless 2023; HPO, Provinciale, 2023; basso profilo, CAMPOTTO: accordi di comunità verso un nuovo piano di stazione, 2023 ), the paper investigates the oscillation between rejection and imagination, theoriz- ing monstrous practices as fantastic opportunities to transcend the established spatial con- ditions. The selected works offer a means to consider the transformation of rejected hu- man and territorial bodies into non-institutionalized potential for regeneration. The article works on the ambivalence between the warning of the uncanny and the vision of the transformed contexts, the conception of a space of dissent and grafts. Such viscosities, despite their complexity, retain a potentially generative disorder, not to be suppressed but to be engaged in a discursively implicated practice with the unexpected, bringing human- ity closer to a concept of wild, ever-changing transformation
Decostruire le identità nei sogni. L’orrore onirico nel Decameron di Boccaccio
Full text linkThe literary criticism has long been concerned with highlighting the importance of dreams in medieval literature, particularly in Boccaccio’s Decameron. However, the degree of horror that characterizes these dreams remains a relatively unexplored topic, often touched upon but rarely central in the contributions that have offered excellent interpre- tations of the dream narratives in Boccaccio’s text. Dissecting bodies, dividing and nar- rating them through disgusting and horrifying descriptions or circumstances is often a way to communicate the instability of the subject, to multiply it, and to render its identity mutable and changeable. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the ways in which horror in Boccaccio’s Decameron contributes to reforming subjectivities and (de)constructing the status of the characters. Attention will be paid to the stories where the narration of dis- turbing bodies intersects with the themes of dreams and visions. This perspective, which is always visual and situated in an otherworldly dimension, allows the characters to take on appearances far removed from an ideal image of an intact and healthy body. In fact, the bodies appear crucial in their destroyed carnality in a world – the dream world – that paradoxically is not populated by flesh. However, they serve as witnesses or warnings, bearers of truth, the more their appearance and flesh have been marred by torment. This paper intends to reflect on these topics.The literary criticism has long been concerned with highlighting the importance of dreams in medieval literature, particularly in Boccaccio’s Decameron. However, the degree of horror that characterizes these dreams remains a relatively unexplored topic, often touched upon but rarely central in the contributions that have offered excellent interpre- tations of the dream narratives in Boccaccio’s text. Dissecting bodies, dividing and nar- rating them through disgusting and horrifying descriptions or circumstances is often a way to communicate the instability of the subject, to multiply it, and to render its identity mutable and changeable. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the ways in which horror in Boccaccio’s Decameron contributes to reforming subjectivities and (de)constructing the status of the characters. Attention will be paid to the stories where the narration of dis- turbing bodies intersects with the themes of dreams and visions. This perspective, which is always visual and situated in an otherworldly dimension, allows the characters to take on appearances far removed from an ideal image of an intact and healthy body. In fact, the bodies appear crucial in their destroyed carnality in a world – the dream world – that paradoxically is not populated by flesh. However, they serve as witnesses or warnings, bearers of truth, the more their appearance and flesh have been marred by torment. This paper intends to reflect on these topics
Lo spazio del disgusto. Materialità e subalternità in Carolina Maria De Jesus
Full text linkThe concept of disgust is generally associated with the sensorial sphere of our body and is identified with a feeling of instinctive repulsion towards something that causes discom- fort. It has different meanings that emphasize its physical, ethical and social component. According to Darwin, disgust is one of the six primary sensations as it generates repul- sion, but for repulsion to occur as an immediate reaction, it must be re-symbolized through an interpretative action that occurs cognitively. Paraphrasing W. I. Miller (1997), disgust contributes to structure the world through the power of images and to internalize moral, collective and political attitudes. In this perspective, disgust is configured as a social catalyst, capable of creating isolated urban spaces of exclusion and marginality. In the novel Quarto de Despejo (1960) Carolina Maria de Jesus represents the existential conditions of a woman on the margins of society in a favela on the outskirts of São Paulo where she is forced to sell garbage to survive. The space of the favela is configured as a place of the marginalized, unwanted, victim of disgust by society. In the same way Caro- lina feels aversion towards São Paulo, which she defines as a «sick city», a symbol of exploitation, discrimination and violence. In the novel the physical element of garbage plays an important role and induces the protagonist to an act of internalization with which she projects the negative qualities of waste onto herself, in this way, she becomes the object and subject of disgust. Thus represented, disgust becomes a threat to one’s dignity, to the sense of belonging to a specific or abstract group, that is, to humanity. The language of the novel takes on forms of disgust in the representations of objects and waste that shape the surrounding space, which has now also become a theater of the repugnant. Car- olina Maria De Jesus more or less consciously consolidates her relationship with the ex- cluding space in which she moves by assuming the characteristics of the social marginalized.The concept of disgust is generally associated with the sensorial sphere of our body and is identified with a feeling of instinctive repulsion towards something that causes discom- fort. It has different meanings that emphasize its physical, ethical and social component. According to Darwin, disgust is one of the six primary sensations as it generates repul- sion, but for repulsion to occur as an immediate reaction, it must be re-symbolized through an interpretative action that occurs cognitively. Paraphrasing W. I. Miller (1997), disgust contributes to structure the world through the power of images and to internalize moral, collective and political attitudes. In this perspective, disgust is configured as a social catalyst, capable of creating isolated urban spaces of exclusion and marginality. In the novel Quarto de Despejo (1960) Carolina Maria de Jesus represents the existential conditions of a woman on the margins of society in a favela on the outskirts of São Paulo where she is forced to sell garbage to survive. The space of the favela is configured as a place of the marginalized, unwanted, victim of disgust by society. In the same way Caro- lina feels aversion towards São Paulo, which she defines as a «sick city», a symbol of exploitation, discrimination and violence. In the novel the physical element of garbage plays an important role and induces the protagonist to an act of internalization with which she projects the negative qualities of waste onto herself, in this way, she becomes the object and subject of disgust. Thus represented, disgust becomes a threat to one’s dignity, to the sense of belonging to a specific or abstract group, that is, to humanity. The language of the novel takes on forms of disgust in the representations of objects and waste that shape the surrounding space, which has now also become a theater of the repugnant. Car- olina Maria De Jesus more or less consciously consolidates her relationship with the ex- cluding space in which she moves by assuming the characteristics of the social marginalized
Descending into the «Dark Pit». Disgust and Pity in the Representation of the Underclass in Il mare non bagna Napoli
Full text linkThere is a presence that runs through the heterogeneous yet related stories of Il mare non bagna Napoli (1953) by Anna Maria Ortese, the crowd, the squalid and hallucinated plebs, «carpet of flesh» – a typical presence in the narratives and iconography of the “great Neapolitan fresco”. The structuring of the work can be interpreted as a gradual descent into the «very dark pit» of the damned, which is accomplished in the catabasis that constitutes the heart of the book (the short story La città involontaria), before at- tempting – in the other half, the long story Il silenzio della ragione – an ascent, first and foremost topographical, towards the quarters of the Neapolitan intelligentsia, as an effort to reconstruct the causes of the post-war cultural programme failure. Ortese’s sensitivity in the representation of the miserable people would here come to crack, according to many critical judgments on the work, as if the “pity” commonly attributed to the author, almost a hallmark of her poetics, was reversed into an ill-concealed disgust towards the Neapol- itan underclass, on whose abjections the narrator’s gaze insists throughout the work. The contribution would like to analyze the ways in which the Neapolitan crowd is represented and the related deformation devices (animalization, multiplication) employed in the text; we would therefore like to investigate the ethical and aesthetic motives of an attitude that does not seem to be motivated so much by «ontological insecurity», the bourgeois fear of contagion (which La Capria speaks of in connection with Ortese’s controversial book); it is, more likely, the descending movement of a poetics that is at one with cognitive pathos, which touches on the great questions of good and evil.There is a presence that runs through the heterogeneous yet related stories of Il mare non bagna Napoli (1953) by Anna Maria Ortese, the crowd, the squalid and hallucinated plebs, «carpet of flesh» – a typical presence in the narratives and iconography of the “great Neapolitan fresco”. The structuring of the work can be interpreted as a gradual descent into the «very dark pit» of the damned, which is accomplished in the catabasis that constitutes the heart of the book (the short story La città involontaria), before at- tempting – in the other half, the long story Il silenzio della ragione – an ascent, first and foremost topographical, towards the quarters of the Neapolitan intelligentsia, as an effort to reconstruct the causes of the post-war cultural programme failure. Ortese’s sensitivity in the representation of the miserable people would here come to crack, according to many critical judgments on the work, as if the “pity” commonly attributed to the author, almost a hallmark of her poetics, was reversed into an ill-concealed disgust towards the Neapol- itan underclass, on whose abjections the narrator’s gaze insists throughout the work. The contribution would like to analyze the ways in which the Neapolitan crowd is represented and the related deformation devices (animalization, multiplication) employed in the text; we would therefore like to investigate the ethical and aesthetic motives of an attitude that does not seem to be motivated so much by «ontological insecurity», the bourgeois fear of contagion (which La Capria speaks of in connection with Ortese’s controversial book); it is, more likely, the descending movement of a poetics that is at one with cognitive pathos, which touches on the great questions of good and evil