A century, a decade and a year of Carlo Michelstaedter.

Abstract

Carlo Michelstaedter (Gorizia, 1887-1910) left a singular trail in the Italian philosophy of the
early 20th century. Almost one hundred and eleven years after his demise, his suicide, one
can still discuss the influence of the Italian thinker, the vitality of their topics and the depth
of their thinking. Our purpose is to know the figure that subsists behind the thinker of
Persuasion and Rhetoric. In accordance with this objective, we will make a tour of his
philosophical, epistolary and poetic work, which is certainly not enough. However, it will
help us to shed light on the fas-cinating creation of the last doctor of nihilism, the last great
diagnosis of the profound lack of sense that carried the second part of the S. XIX and
inaugurated the first decade of the S. XX. In the form of an elegy, perhaps even an ode, we
will remember the Italian philosopher in these times, for he remains a fruitful, unfinished
and extremely mysterious undertaking. In conclusion, we will try to defend Michelstaedter
from merely suicidal readings and approach a four-time interpretation of the Italian
philosopher.