Il 'caso Huizinga': la crisi della civiltà e il senso della catarsi

Johan Huizinga’s "In the Shadows of Tomorrow" (1935) attracted attention and appreciation by a vast array of readers anxious to test the prophetic abilities of a cultural historian and to find clues to understanding a time of severe challenges. It was a work that faced harsh criticism as well. This essay is an attempt to shed light on the significance of the attacks that meant to underscore Huizinga’s theoretical weakness and inability to provide remedies associated to his own diagnosis of the crisis of the day. Our purpose is to highlight the major feature of a philosophy of life that Huizinga deliberately sketched with a view to attributing hope the fullness of its mysterious brightness in the light of transcendence.