Maschere e travestimenti nella prosa francese di fine Ottocento

The mask has always been a magic symbol, directly connected with a religious archaic context. It has been used especially during the celebrations related to the seasonal cycles and to the fertility of the fields. In the course of time, the mask has acquired different values and functions, but it has always determined the suspension of reality and the creation of a new one, ruled by opposite principles (such as the period of carnival), or opened to the afterlife world. The mask can be considered a noteworthy theme for the French decadent sensitivity, emphasizing the desire of forgetting an abject present situation in order to enter a metaphysical dimension. This study is structured in three different parts: the first one analyses the mask as an anthropological subject, the second considers its importance as a literary theme, and finally the third is based on the presence of masks and disguisings in the French fin-de-siècle prose. This thesis means to follow a thematic itinerary from the Idéal to the Spleen, according to the baudelarian bipolar aesthetic. Moving from the analysis of the mask as the embody of mystery, we consider the many, different disillusions of the decadent character in his constant effort to go beyond mere reality looking for an artistic intuition and a fruition of Beauty. Considering the modern use of cosmetic masks in a social setting, we can observe the degeneration of what was once a sacred object. However in the very moment when every limit is surpassed, in the excessive quality of the representation, the character wearing the mask is finally able to leave his narrow, referential being to become the symbol of a poetic ideal.