Dal rovescio del nome al mondo alla rovescia: L’uomo di mannheim di Tommaso Landolfi

Abstract

The pseudo-scientific essay Nuove rivelazioni della psiche umana – a literary parody of Mackenzie’s study Nuove rivelazioni della psiche animale – is based on the reversal of roles between man and dog, reflected, in turn, in the splitting of the name (Onisammot/Tommy). Through the paradox and the language game, Landolfi criticizes the anthropocentrism starting from the disintegration of individual identity to finally arrive at the theory of the «universal soul», according to which all living species are joined by a common destiny: fragility and inability to unravel the mystery of existence.