Abstract

The recent publication of Cuoco’s Epistolario, in the vast Laterza edition of his collected works, offers a very valuable opportunity of rethinking crucial aspects of the biographical, intellectual and political experience of the great Southern Italian writer. Through the analysis of the concept of “situazione”, the author singles out, as a central dimension in Cuoco’s letters, an ambitious project of social elevation . Furthermore, the study of the correspondence makes it possibile to underline the strategies adopted by Cuoco in order to reach the aim of the “situazione”, among which a very important role is played by the transfiguration of his relation with the revolutions of 1789 and 1799 and the masking of his most celebrate work, the Saggio storico sulla rivoluzione di Napoli