Autoaffermazione e metaletteratura: l’Histoire de Tityre nel Prométhée mal enchaîné di André Gide

Abstract

This article aims to highlight the symbolist items of the Histoire de Tityre, the last section of André Gide’s Le Prométhée mal enchaîné. This section is at the same time the most successful symbolic representation of a moral condition and the starting point of the release from any kind of external determination. Through the mise en abyme of his mythical alter ego, Prométhée tells about his own délivrance from his religious scruples, providing the most eloquent example of symbolic representation by a mythical character. In the Épilogue, however, the situation is reversed: Prométhée warns the reader against mythical mystification, leading him to the conclusion that it is impossible to trust mythical examples.