Dilettanti, fra resistenza ed estasi

Abstract

Who is the amateur? what does he do? what doesn't it do? And especially: what can he do and what can't he do? There is a very close connection between the problem of expert competence, today as yesterday, and that of dilettantism, yesterday as today. But it is not always the same link: the internal intensity of the relationship varies, the degree of certainty of those who assume it, the value of the terms involved. According to the Italian dictionary, a dilettante is someone who "shows little ability", therefore an incompetent subject, far from skilled, inexperienced, therefore narratively inconclusive. But if we insert this description in its appropriate context, i.e. in the complex of the definition of the same dictionary, an uncommon complexity and problematic nature emerges in this semantic area.