UN INDISCIPLINED WORK MODA, LETTERATURA E SOCIETÀ NELL’ITALIA POST – RISORGIMENTALE. UN CASO DI STUDIO: I ROMANZI MONDANO-SCAPIGLIATI DI VERGA.

When observing a fashion item—clothing, jewelry, shoes, accessories, etc.—and imagining the moments when this might be used, one conjures up circumstances, environments, characters, actions, and sensations: a whole story is created. This story is born from the creator’s intentions but also shaped by personal and collective experiences. In the popular imagination, many garments tell a story and evoke a combination of meanings: a wide skirt might bring to mind princesses and royal balls; a blazer and tie, authority, control, and the exercise of power; and high heels, the figure of the femme fatale and her romantic adventures. It is precisely this strong connection between storytelling and the fashion phenomenon that creates the foundation of this work, which investigates its relationship with literature. My research focuses on a specific time frame, the end of the 1800s, which is important for two reasons related to fashion: first, the beginning of its strong influence on culture and society; second, the Italian political unification, which would find in fashion one of the pillars of collective identity. The interdisciplinary nature of the project led to the consideration of several fields of study, such as sociology, literature, art, history, etc. Although Fashion Theory has increasingly highlighted the importance of fashion as a scientific object of study, its relationship with literature remains an underexplored area of research. The methodological framework of the research is grounded in Mitchell's idea of “indiscipline” as a break from traditional approaches in order to gain a new perspective of study. The work is sectioned into four parts, each focusing on different aspects explored in the research. The first serves as an introduction and epistemological framing of the study. The consideration of fashion items as media for communicating personal and social ideas and values allowed the use of tools from Intermedial Studies to explore the connections between fashion and literature. The second part, centered on exploring fashion from different disciplinary perspectives, aims to clarify the meanings, dynamics, and interpretations of the phenomenon. The third part contains the analysis of specific texts: Verga's novels: Eva, Tigre Reale, and Eros. In these works, intermedial references to fashion and their meanings are highlighted and interpreted. The final part of the work explores the theme of italianità, the collective cultural identity sought after the country’s political unification. This identity-building process identified the Renaissance as the peak of Italian greatness, which is an idea that found both inspiration and justification in literature. In Verga’s novels, we can observe both the value system on which Italy was building its culture and references to the process that placed the Renaissance at the center of the Italian identity. The relationship between fashion and literature brings to light the strong connection between the two when creating meanings and values that transcend individual works.