Il genio sovversivo di Renato Caccioppoli secondo Jean-Noël Schifano

Abstract

This paper introduces and analyzes characteristics, aspects and contents of the biographical story that Jean-Noël Schifano has written about Renato Caccioppoli (Naples, 1904-1959), a recognized academic and mathematical genius. Caccioppoli was also a pianist, a lover of cinema and literature, an anarchist and a militant communist who lived his passions in a feverish way. Forgotten and then brought back to the fore by the film “Morte di un genio matematico” (directed by Mario Martone in 1992), there is a risk he will be remembered by the great public above all for his charisma and eccentricity. To avoid this risk, Schifano neither exalts nor privileges some aspects of Caccioppoli, succeeding in realizing a fresh and whole “portrait”. Besides, the present paper shows that, going over the characteristics of the biographical genre, the author puts the narration of the events of Caccioppoli’s life in a sort of intimate journal: it achieves the effect of a direct conversation between the author/narrator and the reader and a greater effectiveness at the level of characterization.