ABSTRACT
Federigo Tozzi adopted an aesthetic based on representing reality without trying to explain it, which apparently impedes any moment of revelation. Yet, the presence of nodes of importance independent of events in his stories shows that epiphanies are relevant in his work, although they often take a non-symbolic form. The chapter begins by investigating the presence of epiphanies in Tozzi’s aesthetics of understatement and continues by elaborating on the psychological and spiritual implications of his exceptional moments. In stories like ‘Pigionali’ (1917), ‘Marito e moglie’ (1919), ‘Una recita cinematografica’ (1918), and ‘Il crocifisso’ (1919), his epiphanies can be read as troubling manifestations of the subconscious that disrupt habit and pinpoint a conflicted spirituality, establishing positive values at the same time as they call them into question. Thus, a scrupulous realism, a possibility of transcendence backed by psychology and religion, and a sensitivity to ambiguity and contradiction help Tozzi create modernist epiphanies that point to the unconscious and generate a constant tension towards meaning.
