Windows of the soul: caricature and physiognomy

Posted on by

Wednesday 28 February I was at Warwick University as an invited speaker within the research seminar series of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. I publish here an excerpt of my talk, summarising the main point I tried to make and discussing some example of literary caricatures. Here the uncut version. 

With this talk, I aim at clarifying the mutual enhancement of caricature and physiognomy. As Martin Porter puts it, physiognomy is a form of “natural magic”, a language in which all aspects of human appearance are natural “windows of the soul”. Physiognomy is assessed as “magic” and archaeological knowledge for the modern epistemology deprived it of recognised scientific reliability. Still, it has been a long-standing and pervading presence in Western Culture. Over time, it has registered the multiple and diverse attempts to connect what is visible of the human body to what is invisible and concerns the soul and the mind; to establish a relationship between the outside and the inside; to find homologies between superficial lines and deep forces, physical outlines and moral attitudes.

Lithographic drawings illustrative of the relation between the human physiognomy and that of the brute creation / From designs by Charles Le Brun. Wellcome Collection.

Caricature, both verbal and visual, builds on the insights of physiognomy; it resonates with the innate physiognomic intelligence lodged in the human mind. By taking seriously and emphasising the psychological reliability of face reading, caricature triggers the activation of a satirical knowledge; it claims the paradoxical seriousness of an archaeological wisdom according to which the authentic nature of a person can be divined by analysing his/her body and face, suitably deformed to stress the salient traits.

The idea of caricature being related to a form of regressive knowledge explains its sometimes violent harshness, and the often unpleasant incorrectness of satire, such as in the previously analysed case of Gadda’s anti-fascist verbal caricatures. Gadda detects in Mussolini’s physiognomy his bestial and violent nature; he describes the body of the Italian fascist society as deformed by an erotic excitement targeting the body of the Chief. Particularly, women’s behaviour, triggered by desire, according to Gadda contributed to the defeat of reason, legitimated the violence entailed in the triumph of Eros, and enabled the reproduction of fascism. Caricaturising the bodies of men and women misshapen by sexual desire, Gadda aims at unveiling the psychological and emotional causes of fascism.

Gadda’s enraged misogyny makes evident that he is reactivating what I called a regressive knowledge. Gadda’s premises are “scientific”; he designs a Freudian, psychoanalytical analysis, based on supposedly rational observations. Still, to give evidence to his account Gadda needs to draw upon the physiognomic-emotional insights which can vividly represent his thesis; to the instinctual, irrational interpretation entailed in the violence of caricature. His satire registers the emotional heating of an entire society, and his response is as much emotional as the enticement of the public sphere it intends to fight back.

A similar emotional translation of the political situation is represented in a wide-ranging series of literary texts written or set during fascism, in which social and political issues are entangled with individual sexual drives. In these texts, both the individual body and the social body are deformed, transfigured by an erotic desire which is the embodiment of the irrational political support guaranteed by people to the fascist regime.

In Goffredo Parise’s Il prete bello, published in 1954 but set at the end of the Thirties, with fascism at its peak, the devoted fascist and good-looking priest don Gaetano perturbs the life of an entire town and triggers a compelling attraction in both men and women. In this case, the social body is already deformed by poverty, hunger, small-mindedness: from the very beginning of the novel, each description is a caricature. Though, the erotic flow produced by the arrival of don Gaetano stresses and emphasises this “original” deformation. Desire and eagerness of pleasing the priest deform grotesquely the behaviour of the inhabitants, whose perversion is impressed in their bodies and faces, disfigured by an ugliness which seems to be the consequence of don Gaetano’s beauty, that is to say, of fascist ideas.

Tono Zanacanaro. Gibbo: the socialisation of the ongoing exploits, 1944. Archivio Storico Tono Zancanaro

Eros produces caricatures, it makes visible the emotional deformation of the body, such as in this portrait in motion of Miss Immacolata, that renders her hyperbolic reactions to the news that her beloved don Gaetano doesn’t have an affair with another woman:

Ella s’andava trasformando: dapprima arrossì, poi divenne pallida a un tratto, in seguito un’altra volta rossa e poi rosea. I minuscoli occhi dietro l’occhialino si stavano accendendo di fiammelle e sorrideva ed era trasognata e poi diventò reale e terrena sorridendo a grandi sussulti, annuendo col capo ad ogni mia parola, martoriando i cuscini con le unghie. Finché si alzò dal letto e si diresse alla finestra a passi spiritati, e, come se il cuore all’improvviso stesse cedendo al flusso impetuoso del sangue, gemette: «Basta, Sergio! basta! oh Dio! oh no! oh sì! basta, basta, per carità! per amore della Madonna». E alla fine, generatori di gioia, i singhiozzi le uscirono dal petto mentre andava da una parte all’altra della stanza raccogliendo oggetti che poi gettava per terra un’altra volta, stracciando fogli di carta e lo scialle di seta in tanti pezzetti.

The same link between private sexual lives and public excitement is represented by Vitaliano Brancati in his Il bell’Antonio, published in 1949. The beautiful Antonio Magnano, a Sicilian man, triggers the desire of all the women and seems to embody the prototype of the fascist (and Sicilian) lover.

Vitaliano Brancati, “Il bell’Antonio”, Bompiani, 1949 (cover image: Pablo Picasso, The Cock).

Antonio, though, hides a secret: he is sexually impotent. In the context of fascism, Antonio’s apparently shameful impotence becomes an unconscious, unwilling rejection of the obsessive masculinity officially performed by the regime. Because of Antonio’s misfortune, he and his family can progressively detach themselves from the fascist community. But not without troubles: don Alfio, Antonio’s father, is intimately tortured by Antonio’s condition, struggling between social pressures and the defense of his son’s honour. Alfio’s masculinity is led to a stress point by Antonio’s impotence. And his body, constantly overexcited by anger, becomes the battlefield in which the tension between conformism and rebellion is made comically, hyperbolically visible. As in this dialogue with the brother-in-law Ermenegildo, who is similarly transfigured by rage and concern:

 

Il signor Alfio accentuò l’espressione amara delle labbra spingendole tanto in basso e a sinistra che anche il naso dovette un poco seguirle.
[…]
Ermenegildo continuò ad accarezzarsi la faccia, ma con tanta forza che la carne della guancia destra gli girava al di là del mento fin sulla guancia sinistra e un occhio gli scendeva sopra lo zigomo.
[…]
Il signor Alfio si mise ad agitare una mano verso il cognato e a mugolare con violenza: la parola che non gli veniva alla bocca, e di cui aveva impellente bisogno, era il nome di Ermenegildo.
“Come diavolo ti chiami?” gridò.

Eventually, emotions simultaneously deform physiognomies and overwhelm language, suffocate words.

More subtle and implicit, but not less significant, is the connection between sexualisation of society and deformation in the work of Tommaso Landolfi. Landolfi frequently uses images of animals as a stress-test for humanness. The ever impending monstrosity that circulates in Landolfi’s works is telling about the deep emotional distress that jeopardises both social and sexual life of his characters.

Daniele Guerrieri, Gurù

In La pietra lunare, Giovancarlo’s fear for sex hints at a dysfunctional relational life. Giovancarlo dislikes the bodies of every woman in his village. The deformed, unpleasant bodies of the town dwellers represent the vulgarity of the social body. When Giovancarlo is looking at his fellow humans from his window, his gaze produces a collective caricature:

Ecco ad esempio una fanciulla […] afflitta da un seno grosso e allungato, a borsa, del tutto staccato dal busto e chiazzato di rosole d’una ripugnante larghezza; eppoi pance rigonfie, cosce muscolose e quell’esoso sfaccettamento delle natiche (talvolta persino dislocate), quella iattante e stomachevole sodezza delle anche, che basta a far odiare una donna per tutto il resto dei propri giorni.

As Giovancarlo meets Gurù, the woman-goat, the capra mannara, the encounter seems to disclose for him the dimension of true sexuality and a different femininity, represented by her radically diverse body. Interestingly, Landolfi overturns the hierarchies of deformation: what is grotesque in this tale is the human body deformed by conformism, while the body of the woman-goat embodies the option of escaping from the absurdity and paralysis of reality.

43 thoughts on “Windows of the soul: caricature and physiognomy”

  6. Hi there! I realize this is somewhat off-topic but I needed to ask. Does managing a well-established blog such as yours require a large amount of work? I’m brand new to blogging however I do write in my diary daily. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my experience and thoughts online. Please let me know if you have any recommendations or tips for new aspiring blog owners. Appreciate it!

    Reply ↓

  7. syair sgp vip
    Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell
    and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and
    screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched
    her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I
    know this is totally off topic but I had to
    tell someone!

    Reply ↓

  10. Please let me know if you’re looking for a writer for your site. You have some really great posts and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to write some content for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please send me an email if interested. Kudos!

    Reply ↓

  11. naturally like your web site however you need to test the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very troublesome to inform the truth on the other hand I’ll certainly come back again.

    Reply ↓

  15. Hi! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog. Is it tough to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do you have any tips or suggestions? Appreciate it

    Reply ↓

  19. Definitely imagine that that you said. Your favorite justification seemed to be at the net the easiest factor to take into account of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while folks think about worries that they plainly don’t recognize about. You managed to hit the nail upon the highest and also outlined out the whole thing without having side-effects , folks could take a signal. Will likely be again to get more. Thanks

    Reply ↓

  26. I have been exploring for a bit for any high quality articles or blog posts in this sort of area . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this website. Studying this info So i’m glad to show that I’ve a very excellent uncanny feeling I discovered exactly what I needed. I so much without a doubt will make sure to don?t disregard this site and give it a look on a continuing basis.

    Reply ↓

  33. Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!

    Reply ↓

  35. 今野晴貴、Yahoo!日台関連企業がMOU締結、台湾でのSuica使用も夢ではない？運行業者が破産”. “403年目で初の創業家以外の社長誕生”. “京浜急行バス、長距離夜行高速バスから事実上の撤退”.小田急電鉄.京浜急行電鉄.埼玉の路線バス「けんちゃんバス」運行業者が再生手続き廃止 新型コロナによる利用客減少受け、5月に民事再生申請 バス運行事業は継続中 Yahoo!

    Reply ↓

  36. 中山雅史、元主将の芳賀博信が引退、高原寿康及び高木純平（共に清水へ移籍）、岡山一成（奈良クラブへ移籍）、高木貴弘（岐阜へ移籍）、山本真希（川崎へ移籍）、髙柳一誠（神戸へ移籍）、大島秀夫（北九州へ移籍）が契約満了に伴い退団、金載桓がレンタル終了で全北現代へ復帰、ハモンがブラジルクラブに、ジェイド・

    Reply ↓

  37. やがて、地元の系列校（東海大学熊本星翔高校）に通っている親友（中学生時代のチームメイト）からの誘いがきっかけで、2年時（2022年）の5月に同校へ転入したうえで野球を再開していた。嶋岡健治（日本鋼管）・静岡県出身の河童の仲間。第4作では山の動物たちを殺した人間を、特製のアイスキャンデーを食べさせることで氷漬けにするが殺しはせず、人間によって殺された動物たちを一頭ずつ地蔵を作って供え物も用意して弔うなど優しい性格をしている。

    Reply ↓

  38. 、ジングルも『恋する電リク～』からJUNK時代までのものが使用された。 2日目に装備試験の予定だったが、銀の福音暴走事件が起こり中断、鎮圧に駆り出された専用機持ち以外は宿舎内の各部屋で待機となる。消費増税判断の4回目点検会合、予定通り実施に6人賛成・進入「10人」特定へ（インターネット・ なお、この事件については作中でも時期がハッキリと明記されていないが、情報を総合すると3〜4年前になる（千冬のドイツへの出向に「1年」、IS学園赴任までに「約1年」、入学式当日のSHRでのバカ騒ぎを「毎年」と言っている以上、「1年以上」は勤めている）。

    Reply ↓

  40. 同項に定める「臨時に支払われた賃金」「通貨以外のもので支払われた賃金で一定の範囲に属しないもの」は含まない。同い年の幼馴染。 あくまで幼馴染みの延長線上とはいえ、新にとっては正に「世話女房」で全く頭が上がらず尻に敷かれている。 ただし前年の参加校が10校以上の場合2校が全国大会出場となる。全国大会に行くための登龍門で、優勝校のみ全国大会出場となる。

    Reply ↓

  41. 1982年11月26日 – 北海道電力初の地熱発電所、森発電所が運転開始。 1985年10月 – 北海道電力初の海外炭使用の石炭火力発電所、苫東厚真発電所2号機が運転開始。 1973年11月 – 北海道電力初の石油火力発電所、苫小牧発電所1号機が運転開始。

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *