Sull'utilità e il danno dell'ecologia per la letteratura

The article introduces a group of essays focused on Southern Studies, observed through selected examples from twentieth-century Italian literature. A first part reconstructs the authors’ Third Mission (public engagement) experience in the years 2020–2023, when a number of teaching exercises carried out in Italian school contexts were proposed, focusing on the relationship between literature, environment and territory. Such field research provides, first of all, well-supported evidence of the greater ecological awareness of the generation born in the first decade of the 2000s, who grew up with civic education and Greta Thunberg's movement, compared to adults. Second, it triggers reflection on the potential of ecological dissemination through literature. Finally, the article reflects on the importance of geocritical and ecocritical studies, emphasising the role of the margin as a space of imagination and critique in ecological discourse, especially in Southern Italy. Within this context, the essays that follow are briefly outlined.