“L'èkphrasis romantica e il suo doppio: E.T.A. Hoffmann e la Scapigliatura”

This paper deals with the dialogue between literature and the figurative arts, between words and the language of painting. This interaction between the verbal and the visual frequently characterizes German Romantic poetics as well as its reception in Italy. E.T.A. Hoffmann's use of èkphrasis as a means of staging the fantastic uncanny at different levels of his texts is mirrored by his Italian followers, such as Tarchetti, Boito, Dossi or Camerana, whose works make an effective use of èkphrasis and of the idea of the literary double in their own peculiar ways.