Citation:
Date Published:
3 June 2023Abstract:
Emile Durkheim was the first scholar to treat suicide as a sociological phenomenon, collective rather than private, thus illustrating the failure of modern individualism. This paper demonstrates that the tragic endings of Goethe’s Werther and Foscolo’s Jacopo Ortis anticipate Durkheim’s suicide classification: Goethe and Foscolo created heroes whose tragic action accords with the basic elements belonging to Durkheim’s typologies.
March 2023: Alberto Castelli is Professor of Human Science at Hainan University, China. He is mainly engaged with Modernism, Postmodern dynamics, and Cross-Cultural Studies. Castelli's publications include: “Bipolarism in the Nineteenth Century Novel” published by University of Toronto Quarterly and “Perspective on Asia: Is China Kitsch?” in International Journal of Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press). Email: 182034@hainanu.edu.cn