ABSTRACT
Italian Jewry was already diminutive. The figure of 40,000 or so souls did not rise in the century between 1830 and 1930, despite the general population expansion. The French revolutionary ‘rights of man’ were enthusiastically embraced by Italian Jewry, which supported the invaders. Jews adopted the title of ‘citizen’, and the ghetto gates (literally) started to fall. Italian Jewry, in its size and in its cultural association with the host country, was the modern trend writ large. The two novels ‘L’amore coniugale and Il depresso deal with the relationship of art to creativity. The drama and fury of life and love are no longer there, just a mechanical pleasure, an absence of extreme experience.
