"ALMOST AS A GOD". THE POET IN VITTORIO ALFIERI

Also Vittorio Alfieri participates in his own way in the innovative conception of poetry and the poet, characteristic of the second half of the eighteenth century in Europe. That supported by him was a creative, as opposed to a mimetic concept of poetry that, in its turn presupposed the exceptional nature of the poet, a superior and almost a divine being. Only a god or another poet can judge him, Alfieri states amongst other things. This is an original re-elaboration of the ancient writing on the sublime of the pseudo-Longino and of eighteenth-century dealings. It is doubtful that the Italian poet had knowledge of the famous Inquiry of E. Burke. The alfierian concept also entails the absolute independence of the creative literary figure.