Norman Douglas: Some Psychological Considerations on Old Calabria ()
1. Introduction
The aim of this work is to offer the reader a rather interesting study and scrupulous psychological analysis of the various characters within the masterpiece Old Calabria written by Norman Douglas (born in Thüringen in 1868 and dead in Capri in 1952), the British essayist, fiction-writer and cosmopolitan traveller who decided to become a travel writer and professional novelist.
The course of this investigation which is primarily based in the areas of literature and psychology and that takes into account philosophical, literary and artistic aspects as well as the entire Douglas’ novel is examined with some reflections and psychological considerations on the protagonists during the development of the narrative. Not only does Douglas pay attention to the personages, but also to the exotic and luxuriant landscape, moreover, he makes several references to the archeology and historical events that belong to the classical era (Bevilacqua, 2010) .
Regularly, on the occasion of the Grand Tour of Europe between the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century, several British writers and artists visited southern Italy as it was rich in myth and history. In those years, however, it was rather rare to reach the extreme south, especially Calabria, as after the earthquake of 1638, the region became impoverished and wild with small remote disconnected villages often without roads. In addition, it then became famous as a country of brigands, due to this, a genre of Calabrian picturesque-brigandish literature with regard to brigandage developed later (Mimmo & Merlino, 2000) . Writers on the Grand Tour, the British travelers in particular, followed a rather rigidly seasonal itinerary: they left for Genoa in the autumn in order to arrive in Rome in November, so as to spend the winter in Naples with occasional visits to Gaeta and its surroundings. Naples was the southern limit where they generally stayed for a maximum of two weeks, conversely, going further south not only would have meant an uncomfortable journey, but dangerous as well. However, some English travelers, such as Henry Swinburne (1777-1803) and the writer and illustrator Edward Lear (1812-1888) who published on 24th August 1852, Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria, managed to reach the deeper south. Generally, foreign writers and artists reached the south of Italy as they were in search of Hellenic and Roman atmospheres to be found in the place itself (Valentini, 2001) .
Subsequently, in view of this, many writers and artists have often and willingly made reference to the Calabrian region in different disciplines. For instance, in the field of painting and portraiture, the artist Edward Lear represents Calabria in the 19th century in some of his illustrations (Ruffo, 2022) . In the literary area, the Italian writer and journalist Corrado Alvaro (1895-1956) mentions the region of Calabria in the collection of thirteen short stories, namely Gente in Aspromonte (1930) (Morace, 2021) , whereas, as far as the artistic and theatrical fields are concerned, it is noteworthy to mention that the theatre director and contemporary Italian avant-garde artist Gian Carlo Riccardi (1933-2015) refers to Calabria in the play and comedy Vita, Morte e Miracoli di un Anarchico Calabrese (1972) (Riccardi, 2013) .
Notwithstanding what was stated above, Norman Douglas’ Old Calabria tends to be regarded as the richest work in details and characteristics about the Calabrian region and this would then explain the fact that he never devoted so much time to any other of his works (Meusburger et al., 2004) .
The aforementioned Grand Tour was an intellectual movement that originated in the 18th century, it was a journey of education, pleasure and adventure that men of culture undertook throughout Europe. This movement inspired many writers, artists and travelers of the time and later Norman Douglas as well as who found a great source of inspiration especially in Calabria (Merlino, 2000) . Hence, Old Calabria inaugurated a new trend in travel literature that captured, in addition to landscape aspects, real human and social issues.
2. Objectives
This analysis aims to examine the relationship that the English writer Norman Douglas has with his most significant work Old Calabria and his connection with the characters of the novel with their different behaviors in order to subsequently reach the places that characterize the narrative.
The specific objectives of the research are:
1) To recognize and analyze the creative element in the realization of Norman Douglas’ literary work;
2) To know and examine the various aspects and elements present in the work;
3) Study and analysis of the characters present in Douglas’ work in relation to the Italian region of Calabria;
4) Study of the territory and the landscape in relation to the characters of the Calabrian region and southern Italy.
3. Methods
The study was conducted through the analysis of literary and psychological texts concerning past and contemporary artists and writers, with particular attention to the British writer Norman Douglas, examining the novel Old Calabria from a psychological perspective. With regard to the landscape and the characters described within the book, documents and texts concerning the life of the writer were analyzed with a focus mainly on the psychological and behavioral aspects.
We have taken into consideration the line indicated by the Psychology of Art and Literature founded and consolidated for several years by Professor Antonio Fusco, which precisely consists of the search for the psychological motivations that led the writer to create certain characters and environmental situations (Fusco & Tomassoni, 1982) . The investigation methodology we have adopted involves direct comparison with the literary text, however, the work, the characters, the themes addressed in it with the symbolic structures, the biographical events of the author and his personality constitute the prevalent object of analysis (Tomassoni, 2018) .
That being the case, the interpretative proposal excludes any form of dogmatism and is therefore in continuity with the philosophical, artistic and, in this case literary criticism (Fusco & Tomassoni, 2011) . Additionally, the symbolic elements present in the literary text constitute another important feature; not only are they solved by drawing on a rigid interpretative code (e.g. the constant reference to the sexual or complex sphere of psychoanalysis), but are clarified through a careful and rigorous research of the psychological meanings that they conceal. They do not neglect the influence of the broader socio-cultural dimension and the irrepressible subjectivity of the individual. On that account, through the critical-interpretative analysis of the literary text, the research methodology basically tends to integrate the assumptions of the psychoanalytic perspective with the vast field of contemporary psychological theories (Tomassoni, 2020) .
The methodology aprioristically excludes a dogmatic-interpretive reading of the text in order to contribute to a clearer and simpler interpretation of the literary message (Fusco & Tomassoni, 2008) . Accordingly, critical-interpretative considerations and investigations on Douglas’ novel were carried out as well, analyzing some characteristic moments of the narratives with particular focus on the typically psychological aspects and projections of the English author’s creativity. Our work therefore deals with careful research that seeks to clarify in terms of conceptual message the contents that are often not comprehensible on a first reading of the author’s work. The essential aim of this research is to clarify through a psychological reading the contents of the message expressed by the author and to enrich the literary text with meanings by translating apparently incomprehensible elements into concepts.
4. Analysis of the Work
First and foremost, in order to conduct this research, we started from the reflection of how often the fictional and sometimes real characters presented by writers within their novels can represent split parts of the author’s personality that projects, at the unconscious level, its contents onto the narrating Ego. Nevertheless, we are inclined to believe that the author who generally writes to accomplish his work can come into contact with his own inner world where, behind the curtain of defenses, he can encounter the chaos of emotions, desires, pain and other mental contents not always easily accessible to consciousness, that can thus be progressively understood and processed. However, all this can happen because writing, genuinely in the literary sphere, seems to assume a therapeutic function for the author himself as it unequivocally encourages self-reflection (Haruki, 2017) .
As reported by Ferrari, fictional characters constitute the multiple portions of the writer’s ego, not in the predictable sense according to which they would represent his desires and anxieties, but as representatives of the innumerable possibilities of explanation. Due to that, in addition to being the replica of the private and personal identifications of those who produce them, literature then leans towards freedom and the release from the private sphere as to become a game, pleasure and possibility (Ferrari, 1994) .
From our personal standpoint, all this can be observed in Norman Douglas’ Old Calabria (see Figure 1) as his account is the result of several tours of southern Italy made by cart, on the back of a mule, by train and by walking from 1907
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Figure 1. Giacomantonio (1984) . Norman Douglas [Photo]. Library of Congress, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Douglas#/media/File:Norman_Douglas_1935.jpg.
until 1911. He joined the diplomatic corps and was in Petersburg from 1894 to 1896. Having abandoned that career, he settled in Italy, on Capri. He travelled the length and breadth of southern Italy where he wrote many books which are well known both in Great Britain and abroad, namely Siren Land (1911), South Wind (1917) a witty and fantastic novel set on Capri. Other works: Alone (1921), Together (1923), Experiments (1925), Goodbye to Western Culture (1930), Looking Bach (1933), Late Harvest (1946), Footnote on Capri (1952). However, Old Calabria (published in 1915 and edited by Martin Secker) can be considered as the finest book ever written about Italy (Botton, 2002) . He is a writer of great refinement, endowed with a subtle humour.
Douglas was only twenty years old when he visited Italy for the first time in 1888. According to him and many other northerner Europeans, especially British travelers, the trip meant a sort of both physical and a spiritual rebirth (Douglas, 2004) . On the grounds of this, in 1896 he decided to buy a villa at Gaiola, on the tip of the promontory of Posillipo in Naples, which he chose to call it the Villa Maya and where he lived until 1904, when, afterwards impoverished and divorced, he moved to Capri where he died in 1952. In 1907 he visited Calabria for the first time and then decided to return there in 1911.
As he discovered to be in love with the Calabrian crystal-clear seas (see Figure 2), the wild landscape and the good nature of the rural population, he came back there once more in 1937. He gave the impression of being a fearless and shrewd adventurer who was interested in everything he saw. Douglas looked like as well suited to compose such a novel as not only could he have been well-traveled, zoologist, geologist and polyglot, but he was also a conscientious observer of the
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Figure 2. Lear (1852) . Journal of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria [Lithography]. National Library of Naples, Naples, Italy, https://api.finarte.it/api/lotto/immagine/24589/0/800.
social customs and political reforms and a great gentleman who easily mixed with all classes with whom he was unsentimental and direct (Holloway & Douglas, 1976) .
He seemed to have an understanding of the political, geographical, religious and economic circumstances which had made them what they were. On the one hand, as an observer he showed signs of objectivity and precision, whereas on the other hand, he could convey his enthusiasm for life by his vigorous and entertaining style as a modern writer. In that case, his books, especially Old Calabria, can offer to the reader an instructive and enjoyable experience as they are able to preserve the language, the tone and, above all, a sort of unpredictability in the dialogues between friends (Meusburger et al., 2004) .
On balance, apart from being a distinguished travel book, Old Calabria could also be considered as an up-to-date and successful “encyclopedia” of a place in which Norman Douglas managed to discover its history during his constant visits that he made in the early decades of the twentieth century. As a direct result, it should be noted that this work could function as an effective introduction to the region as well (Bevilacqua, 2008) . Douglas conveyed the impression of being never inattentive or indifferent to the things he saw; he seemed to be rather fascinated by the ruins of once notorious convents and monasteries, old stony churches and the Albanian liturgical rites. Moreover, the British writer appeared to be as a keen and perceptive observer of everyday life in southern Italy, particularly in the region of Calabria. Firstly, what might have aroused his curiosity the most was the distribution of wealth and the peculiar utilization of vast fortunes which were amassed in remote and uncommon small villages (Bevilacqua, 2005) .
Secondly, he seemed to be captivated by the use of the Italian language, particularly by the old Calabrian dialect and he was fascinated by the evidence of a semi-underground intellectual life in Calabria that he carefully documented it. Nonetheless, when Douglas was in the presence of the southern countryside, he then tended to abandon his traditional restrained lyricism (Assunto, 2005) .
Douglas begins to travel from the East coast, in Saracen Lucera and terminates in Crotone, passing through Venosa, Manfredonia, Taranto and Salento. In our view, what mainly emerges in his novel is his interest for the Calabrian landscape which he describes as exotic and luxuriant. In addition to the above, the author takes a keen interest in the inhabitants who appear full of vitality, thence he makes many references to the archeology and the historical events of the classical era.
Within the novel, full of detailed descriptions and particular features, the writer seems almost as if he possessed a paintbrush with which he carefully paints the Calabrian scenery where the events and vicissitudes experienced by Douglas himself take place, like an artist who belongs to the current of Vedutism (as Canaletto would do) (Cottino, 1991) . Furthermore, it is noteworthy to point out that throughout the novel there are frequent considerations on the social and economic conditions of the South and in particular of Calabria in the early twentieth century (e.g. malaria or the brigand Giuseppe Musolino) (Douglas, 2004) .
However, in accordance with Douglas, it seems that the Calabrian environment, albeit harsh and difficult, contrasts in some way with the “pathological sadness of the men of northern Europe”. As far as we are concerned, we are inclined to share Douglas’ opinion who maintains that the center of a town constitutes the first center of the well-to-do class and that only by talking with a group of citizens gathered to converse could it be possible to “feel the pulse” of the country and gauge people’s reception as well (see Figure 3).
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Figure 3. Lear (1852) . Journal of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria [Lithography]. National Library of Naples, Naples, Italy, https://www.pbagalleries.com/images/lot/9012/90126_0.jpg.
What we find very interesting is the moment in which the writer describes who the authentic Calabrian was in his view. He then specifies that, in order to see the real Calabrian, people had to observe the peasants when they come back home in the evening from farm work. Thus, among them it was possible to find the indescribable mark of the “race”, in character and features, in reality the Calabrian people were different from the Italians as they had Spanish origins.
Douglas states that the typical Calabrian man was a character of few but orderly words, sincere, indifferent to pain and suffering with almost always a sense of detachment from worldly things according to the conception he had of life.
A passage of the novel that we consider particularly interesting is the one in which the author describes being in the ancient city of Morano that did not offer much food and hospitality. What especially attracted our attention is what the women of the city of Morano used to wear, as they wore red skirts and ribbons of the same color of their hair. In accordance with Douglas, the red color might had been brought there by the Saracens since they were the ones who imported the craze for red pepper which was typical of those areas. On account of the above, it seems to us that it could be of great interest to pay attention to the single color and, in particular, to colors in general as the Psychology of colors come into play since they can stimulate the human mind and consequently provoke particular emotions (Hussain, 2021) .
In actual fact, each color seems to have its meaning and its precise connection with a part of the brain that determines specific emotions or moods. In practice, this happens because the color does not exist as such in nature, yet human beings are able to perceive it as the eye absorbs electromagnetic radiation from light and the retina, depending on the wavelength and intensity of this stimulus, proceeds to send it to the brain to turn it into a particular color. For instance, the red color identified by Douglas in the skirts and ribbons of the women of Morano could be linked, on a psychological level, to the concept of strength, power and to nervous and vital activity as well. Under those circumstances, red seems to represent the color of passion and desire in all its forms, not only does it symbolize love but also economic desire or success, in our opinion, however, this color stands for a sort of stimulus towards a revolutionary change. According to studies in the psychological field, red can convey security and attention-seeking people are the ones that mostly wear this color (Grazzini, 2019) .
All in all, the impression that the British writer has of Calabria and of southern Italy in general, apart from some negative aspects, such as lack of the male population and the fact that the region is rather disordered, is quite positive. In consideration of the above, it should be noted that in Old Calabria Douglas makes a comparison with England where even the streets and the stones themselves documented an innate love for order. Along with this, he noticed that the place he was visiting had remained unchanged over time as he could still meet traditional people unaffected by modernism and emigration that often used to gather together.
Besides, the costumes of these people represent a feature that attracts the author’s attention and that mostly characterizes them within a stereotyped dimension that we consider as fixed in time and that belongs to cultural and folkloristic traditions (as are the costumes of the women of San Giovanni in Flower as well).
The way we see it, it may seem that, by portraying the characters within the text, one different from the other, the author gives the impression of inserting his personality subdivided into several parts and does, beforehand and unconsciously, an inner reading of his psyche. It follows that this journey can be regarded as a sort of exploration that the author started and continued in order to get to know himself better, thereby, this seems to establish a link with the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s gnōthi seautón, or “know yourself” (Radice, 2019) .
It is worth mentioning the moment in which the writer enters a small village and then analyze the relationship between the atmosphere of the countryside and the character with whom Douglas comes into contact: in that peaceful place (see Figure 4), he was able to speak with a rather grumpy and bad-tempered hotel owner. Afterwards, he entered a shop where he had seen signs of life and Douglas was favorably impressed by the owner as she seemed to be affable and friendly since she had greeted him with a big smile and direct cordiality.
Hence, it can then be observed how Douglas’s environment corresponds to his character and inevitably how the place can, in some cases, influence the personality of the individual as well.
Over and above that, another element to which Douglas refers and considers of great importance is the concept of home which, in agreement with the contemporary Italian artist Gian Carlo Riccardi, seems to symbolize the family and, as follows, a direct return to the past, to childhood and memories of one’s roots (Tomassoni et al., 2022) . However, Douglas points out that the sentimentality which distinguishes the English people towards inanimate objects does not exist in this case.
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Figure 4. Lear (1852) . Journal of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria [Lithography]. National Library of Naples, Naples, Italy, https://www.pbagalleries.com/images/lot/9012/90125_0.jpg.
In the times when the author visited southern Italy, he realized that there were still many customs and superstitions that undeniably proclaimed the superiority of man even though most of the male population had gone to America. Douglas claims that it was still possible to find women who were nothing more than beasts of burden, slovenly and primitive, especially in the towns along the coast as in those areas men were the sole learned ones (Bevilacqua, 1993) . With regard to emigration to America, the British writer notes that although it brought a lot of money to the country and many new ideas, the inhabitants had not yet learnt to lead a life of ease and to enjoy a more modern standard of living as, in all likelihood, they were still excessively anchored to their own archaic customs (Bodei, 2008) . Notwithstanding, we are of the firm idea that Douglas’ remarks and reflections during his travels in Calabria, within what can be considered as a “travel book”, remain fundamental in deepening our knowledge of the customs and traditions of a large part of the Calabrian population.
From a stylistic point of view, it can be observed that Douglas seems to maintain a narrative tension and shows interest in the psychological analysis of his characters. Resultantly, he looks as though he manages to call to mind some features of the modern English novel, however, not of the properly modernist narrative which had become popular in those years, such as for instance the interior monologue or the stream of consciousness, since this inner search is exploited in function of an objective knowledge of man and his reality.
Following what was stated above, it is noteworthy to mention that the stream of consciousness was regarded as the technique through which the analysis of the individual thoughts of the character and the connections that he makes between the objects with their symbolic value and specific and peculiar situations, are highlighted (Lungu, 2022) .
In our estimation, it would seem that the masterpiece Old Calabria has made Norman Douglas become part of an English literary tradition; the author appears to evoke the British poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) on account of his Naturalism and the hope of regeneration through the contact with a primitive world. Likewise, there seem to be some references to the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and the Anglo-Saxon poet William Blake (1757-1827) in the descriptions of the horrors produced by the industrial civilization. Eventually, in the reconstruction of the South which he does through direct observation of the facts that take place in the different social situations, generally the most marginalized ones, it looks as though there are some elements that refer to the Dickensian tradition of English fiction.
Finally, it has to be pointed out that in Italy during fascism (from 1922 until 1943), no anybody translated the books of Douglas, Lawrence and Gissing as the image of Italy that they depicted in their novels did not conform to the taste of the time (Valentini, 2001) .
5. Conclusion
On the basis of our reflections and considerations, we can maintain that not only did Douglas manage to take an aesthetic and intellectual delight in his journey throughout Calabria, but also a physical pleasure as he succeeded in the discovery of the ancient, the mythical, the magical, the wild, the sublime, the beautiful, the picturesque and the authentic. As we see it, one of the benefits of Douglas’ work can be that it gave him the opportunity to make a contribution to fill a significant gap in our knowledge of the Calabrian culture, as well as to address its influence on the English literature and culture.
Furthermore, we have observed how the British author managed to produce a work that contains a plurality of subjects, as well as disciplines in the historical, cultural and literary fields, especially in the psychological sphere with regard to characters presented in relation to the environments and the different places that he describes. Similarly, also the color and the costumes are elements that have a particular resonance within the work and we are inclined to believe they can have several meanings.
Hence, the themes that particularly emerge from this masterpiece can be mainly attributable to the figure of the woman, the colors, the tradition and the culture of the region along with the concept of family and home which can undoubtedly stem from recollections and memories.
All things considered, the obvious conclusion to be drawn is that in Norman Douglas’ Old Calabria, there are typical and original elements that emerge that are not only capable of capturing a mixture of passion, superstition, fear and excitement, but at the same time, they manage to highlight how in such a remote place, still characterized by a wild nature, not yet contaminated by modernity, as Calabria was at the beginning of the 20th century, everything appears to have remained still and immortalized in time where there is a permanence of the archaic and mythical.
According to Francesco Bevilacqua, the contemporary Italian writer who wrote Sulle Tracce di Norman Douglas and published it in 2012, this could be the main reason that triggers many writers and artists from northern Europe to reach Calabria as they migrate in reverse in search of that archaic nature described by Douglas and interpreted as authenticity and cult of memory (Bevilacqua, 2012) .