La lezione di Pitrè. Pier Paolo Pasolini e Italo Calvino tra letteratura e antropologia

The connection between literature and anthropology is central to both Pier Paolo Pasolini's Canzoniere italiano and Italo Calvino's Fiabe italiane. This study compares the 19th-century approach of scholars such as Tommaseo, Pitrè, and Comparetti with the 20th-century perspectives of De Martino, Cocchiara, and Cirese, highlighting a complex and layered relationship that balances continuity and transformation. The methodological shift, which redirects focus toward the study of social institutions, collective beliefs, and language, profoundly influences 20th-century literature, ushering in a new phase of assimilation of popular culture into the dominant cultural framework. Despite their differing perspectives, Pasolini and Calvino share the intent of documenting and redefining the relationship between literature and the people: the former, with utopian nostalgia, emphasizing the preservation of tradition; the latter, reinterpreting it through a modern lens.