Dalla paura alla vertigine. Martiri nella letteratura contemporanea

In Western culture influenced by Christian tradition, martyrs are often represented as heroic characters who face death with courage and serenity. In contrast with this topos – and in some cases openly referring instead to the model of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane – a number of 20th-century literary works represent martyrs in their moments of fear and anguish. In many cases, these feelings precede a phase of liberation that can be defined as “vertigo” and takes place right before the martyr’s death. This paper tackles this particular pathemic issue connected to martyrdom in a sample of European literary texts by Gertrud von le Fort, Ugo Betti, Miguel Unamuno, Antonio Tabucchi, and Carmelo Bene.