La filologia romanza in Italia: come rinnovare una tradizione?

The prestigious tradition of Romance Philology in the 20th century Italian academic world needs to be reconsidered and renewed; at the same time, the reasons and targets of this discipline (which used to bring together a wide range of competences and perspectives) need to be reshaped. In my paper, I will discuss six major points, outlining strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats: the focus on the Middle Ages, which implies being both fashionable and marginal; the focus on textual culture more than on the models offered by literary theory (sometimes with an excessively narrow point of view); the excellence of textual criticism and manuscript studies (with the risk of not being understood outside Italy); the marginal role of historical linguistics (with the exception of lexicography); the boundary between comparative literature and anthropology; European culture (past, present, and future) as a context and an opportunity for medieval romance studies.