“Aristocracy, Democracy, and the Church in Lampedusa’s The Leopard”
With Anthony Nussmeier, Ph.D
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard, translated by Archibald Colquhoun, Pantheon, 1960
Description of the course
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s posthumously-published novel (1958) recounting the southern perspective of Italy’s unification (1861) is an elegiac tale of a way of life in transition. The Leopard elucidates better than any work of historiography the key questions of Italian unification, and puts forward in novel form Alexis de Tocqueville’s observation about the shift from aristocracy to democracy in Democracy in America: “Among democratic nations new families are constantly springing up, others are constantly falling away, and all that remain change their condition; […] Aristocracy had made a chain of all the members of the community, from the peasant to the king; democracy breaks that chain and severs every link of it” (Democracy in America, vol. 2, ch. 2).
Will protagonist Don Fabrizio, patriarch of the House of Salina, remain the aristocratic “Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina”, or will he become, in a new, democratic Italy, simply “Mr. Corbera”? Is Italian unification a true union or is it an imposition, even an invasion? What will be the role of the Church in a united Italy whose founders, observes the Jesuit priest Padre Pirrone in Part V of the novel, “won’t even leave us eyes with which to weep”? We will explore these questions and more in a six-part course on one of the Italian tradition’s most important works.
“Aristocracy, Democracy, and the Church in Lampedusa’s The Leopard”
Oct. 22, 2024 (7 pm – 8:30 pm – PST)
Lesson One: Introduction to Lampedusa and The Leopard (Part I: “Introduction to the Prince”)
Oct. 29, 2024 (7 pm – 8:30 pm – PST)
Lesson Two: The Leopard (Parts II and III: “Donnafugata”, “The Troubles of Don Fabrizio”)
Nov. 05, 2024 (7 pm – 8:30 pm – PST)
Lesson Three: The Leopard (Parts IV and V: “Love at Donnafugata”, “Father Pirrone Pays a Visit”)
Nov. 12, 2024 (7 pm – 8:30 pm – PST)
Lesson Four: The Leopard (Part VI: “A Ball”)
Nov. 19, 2024 (7 pm – 8:30 pm – PST)
Lesson Five: The Leopard (Part VII: “Death of a Prince”)
Nov. 26, 2024 (7 pm – 8:30 pm – PST)
Lesson Six: The Leopard (Part VIII: “Relics”)
About the Professor
Anthony Nussmeier, Ph.D.
Department Chair, Director of Italian, Associate Professor of Italian, Modern Languages at the University of Dallas
Anthony Nussmeier is Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Italian at the University of Dallas, where he teaches courses ranging from beginning Italian language to senior seminars. Dr. Nussmeier is Contributing Editor for The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies and Co-Editor and Book-Review Editor (Medieval, English-Language) of Annali d’Italianistica. He lectures frequently on Italian topics, and has made radio, podcast, and even television appearances on EWTN as part of the UD-produced program The Quest. Dr. Nussmeier has previously taught courses for the Archdiocese on Dante (2022) and Alessandro Manzoni (2023).
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