The Double Within: Coexistent Minds and the Fantastic in Ugo Tarchetti

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines four ‘fantastic’ stories by Ugo Tarchetti — ‘Riccardo Waitzen’ (1867), ‘Le leggende del castello nero’ (1867),‘Un osso di morto’ (1869), and ‘Uno spirito in un lampone’ (1869) — and argues for the presence of a double in terms of a coexistence of two minds in the same space, one invasive, the other an unwilling host. Not all instances of coexistent minds are the same, but all overpower and control their hosts to both farcical and deadly ends but also with moral, judicial and instructive consequences. I argue that these are not the external doppelgängers of nineteenth-century fantastic literature that emerge from the host, but internal doubles that are distinguished by their difference rather than their similarity to their hosts, as a result of which Tarchetti stands out for his innovative take on the theme of the double.