Torquato Accetto, secretary and poet, published the treatise "Della simulazione onesta" in 1641. It was a thin manual to survive political turmoils and moral instability of the time; it was also a guide to "secret" writing in a time of censorship. The course follows the reception of the treatise up to the 20th century and focuses on how it got shaped to meet various historical and political ideas.
Learning objective
The students know the author and his coeval context; the students can relate the writing modalities of the treatise to the socio-cultural context of various historical times; the students know how to identify and interpret the metaphorical potential of the texts, as well as its literary power.
