Fanciulli bacchici e maledizione mitica del lutto nei Rougon-Macquart: il miraggio dell'enfant inconnu

Abstract

Fundamental works of Western literature handle the issue of death and rebirth by an observation and description of the processes of the vegetal world. Trees and leaves appear in the famous passage of the Iliad as a representation of human decay and of its strength: death reigns over life, but life wins in the endless rebirth of new generations; in the Old Testament, human life is compared to the essence of flowers: something unique and easily perishable. But in the Messianic horizon, death is to be conquered by the flos of the tree of Jesse. The focus is therefore on the offspring to come. In Zola’s masterpiece, the Rougon-Macquart cycle, we can basically find the same consolidated idea, a sort of Messianic horizon represented by the «enfant inconnu»; but, before this, it is necessary to pass through the painful and disturbing theme of mourning, centred on the figure of the Rougon-Macquart ancestor, Adelaïde, and on a Dionysian pair of «enfants» who are to be sacrificed for the well-being of the family, among flowers, pomegranates, and skulls.