Per una mappa ‘quantistica’ delle teorie della lirica (2000-2023)

Abstract

In the last twenty years, especially the USA and Germany, the theory of the lyric has progressively grown to be a prolific field of study, inspired by the urge of overcoming the perceived lack of an exhaustive definition of the “lyric”, as well as by the necessity of departing from the closely formalistic critical debates. The lyric has therefore received renewed attention from multiple outlooks: from post-classical narratology to (neuro)cognitive perspectives, from stylistics to affect studies, among others. While this renewed scholarly engagement has resulted in a plethora of critical contributions, these approaches have frequently clashed with each other, especially with regards to issues of genre delimitations, fictionality and performativity, thus depicting a fragmented but profoundly interrelated critical space. In this paper, I will offer a comprehensive survey of the most relevant theories of the lyric appeared in the last two decades outside of the Italian critical debate, while metaphorically drawing together the theory of the lyric and quantum theory, on the grounds of similar features of uncertainty, interdependence, and hermeneutic emphasis.