Il flagello e l'interprete. Quattro saggi su letteratura e disastri tra Cinque e Seicento

The volume assembles contributions that examine literary productions concerning disasters in the 16th and 17th centuries. A central theme that permeates these studies is the profound impact of cataclysmic events, not merely on individuals and community structures, but more critically on language itself, dis-rupting the steadfast bond between res and verba. In the wake of a catastrophe, it is not solely the tangi-ble entities, the res, that are fractured, but an entire worldview, along with the semiotic and epistemolog-ical framework that underpins these 'things'. The study of literature thus offers a unique vantage point, illuminating the process of reconstructing the disrupted order from within the very texts that bear wit-ness to such upheavals.