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La Poesia Esoterica Del Periodo Simbolista E Modernista

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La Poesia Esoterica Del Periodo Simbolista E Modernista 1 UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA TRE DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN CULTURE E LETTERATURE COMPARATE XXIV ciclo Identità per opposizione: Dio e uomo nella poesia di W. B. Yeats e Lucio Piccolo di Stefano Teatini TUTOR: Prof. Marinella Rocca Longo COORDINATORE: Prof. Francesco Fiorentino Desidero ringraziare la Prof.ssa Marinella Rocca Longo, la Prof.ssa Franca Ruggieri e La Dott.ssa Silvia Chessa per l’aiuto prestatomi nel contesto di questo lavoro e del mio percorso post-laurea in generale. Abstract. La tesi consiste, nella sua parte iniziale, in un’analisi della poesia di William Butler Yeats incentrata sul complesso rapporto tra uomo e Dio. Un forte accento è posto sul tema della morte, che costituiva evidentemente un problema cruciale per lo scrittore irlandese, come dimostrano le molte risorse da questi investite nell'elaborazione del sistema di A Vision. Il non essere era visto da Yeats come riconciliazione degli opposti, e l'essere (la vita) come affermazione del sé per opposizione: sono in quanto sono altro (motto in un certo senso vicino al "sono in quanto sono percepito" di George Berkeley). In questo studio verrà evidenziato il continuo oscillare del poeta di Sligo tra posizioni ‘primarie’ e ‘antitetiche’, oggettive e soggettive: tra rifiuto e accettazione, autoaffermazione e annullamento. Nei capitoli che concludono il volume sarà presentato uno studio sui legami tra Yeats e il siciliano Lucio Piccolo, relativamente agli argomenti affrontati nel corso delle sezioni precedenti dell’opera. 2 1.0 Introduzione. Il periodo di passaggio tra il XIX e il XX secolo fu caratterizzato da una diffusa riscoperta dell’occulto che si scatenò in tutto l’occidente. Questo fenomeno fu probabilmente dovuto alla crisi dell’intellettuale post-nietzscheano ormai alla ricerca di una nuova forma di spiritualità, più compatibile col pensiero moderno rispetto a quanto proposto dalle dogmatiche religioni istituzionali. La nuova ed eterogenea scuola di pensiero doveva fondere scienza e teologia, e fu intesa come un modo per riconciliare intuito e ragione attraverso la riscoperta degli insegnamenti religiosi, scientifici e magici degli antichi. In un suo saggio intitolato “The History of the Occult Movement”, Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos afferma che: Many of the occult movements of the period begin with a formulaic denial that science represents the only legitimate access to reality. However, science is not rejected outright; on the contrary, the occult often expresses itself in scientific or quasi-scientific terminology and derives much of its appeal from the claim that it bridges the traditional split between religion and science. Rather than repudiating science, occultism claims that it uses the methods of scientific analysis to provide empirical evidence for concepts and beliefs (such as the immortality of the soul) which religion asks that we accept on grounds of faith.1 Nulla poteva meglio dei fenomeni dello spiritismo garantire una prova oggettiva dell’immortalità dell’anima. Proprio per questo, un secolo e mezzo fa cominciò a diffondersi, a partire dagli Stati Uniti, un movimento spiritico dilagante, caratterizzato da un’identità profondamente democratica grazie al fatto che non richiedeva, a differenza degli ordini esoterici passati e presenti, riti di iniziazione, e non poneva enfasi sulla necessità che i suoi praticanti possedessero particolari conoscenze specifiche. 1 D. P. Tryphonopoulos, “The History of the Occult Movement”. In L. Surette, D. P. Tryphonopoulos, a cura di, Literary Modernism and the Occult Tradition. Orono, Maine: The National Poetry Foundation, 1996. Molti dei movimenti occulti di quel periodo si basano sul rifiuto programmatico che la scienza rappresenti l’unico accesso legittimo alla realtà. Eppure, essa non viene rifiutata in toto; al contrario, l’occulto si esprime spesso in termini scientifici o semi-scientifici e deve molto del suo fascino alla propria pretesa di colmare la tradizionale scissione tra religione e scienza. Piuttosto che ripudiare la seconda, l’occulto sostiene di usare i metodi dell’analisi scientifica per fornire prove empiriche di concetti e credenze (come l’immortalità dell’anima) che la religione ci chiede di accettare per atto di fede. [Trad. S. Teatini] 3 Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, discutibile studiosa nella quale W. B. Yeats riponeva tuttavia grande fiducia nel periodo giovanile della propria vita, auspicava un’indagine sistematica dei fenomeni spiritici da parte di persone preparate e consapevoli, e lamenta spesso, nelle sue opere, la totale chiusura del mondo scientifico a questo tipo di ricerche, considerando tale atteggiamento come un rifiuto a mettersi in gioco.2 La difficoltà insita in una vera analisi scientifica dello spiritismo risulta evidente agli occhi di un lettore del XXI secolo, ma non lo era per i pensatori dell’inizio del secolo scorso, fattore che è importante ricordare per comprendere meglio la posizione di Yeats al riguardo, e la cornice in cui si inserirono i contributi da lui forniti nell’arco degli anni allo studio della materia. H. P. Blavatsky criticava gli spiritisti del XIX secolo per la mancanza di un modus operandi stabilito, riconosciuto e generalmente accettato da tutta la comunità, e auspicava la creazione di qualcosa di più di qualche opera isolata o di qualche occasionale contributo giornalistico: sognava la formazione di un sistema filosofico che i pensatori del settore non concretizzavano perché sbigottiti dalle contraddizioni incontrate.3 Il sistema di A Vision di Yeats va collocato proprio in questa cornice. Al di là dei preconcetti nutriti dai più nei confronti dell’occulto, che viene generalmente visto come una triviale forma di superstizione, va precisato che l’aspetto più autentico di tale dottrina è altamente filosofico. A tale riguardo, W. B. Yeats fu molto influenzato dal sistema neoplatonico, che preferiva a quello gnostico soprattutto per questioni di carattere morale.4 Al di là delle credenze particolari, infatti, le due dottrine sono accomunate dalla concezione condivisa di un Dio completamente trascendente e dall’idea di creazione come caduta dal divino attraverso una catena di emanazioni, ma, se i neoplatonici e gli gnostici auspicavano entrambi l’emancipazione dalla materia e il ritorno alla comunione con Dio, i secondi si distinguevano per la loro visione radicalmente dicotomica del mondo: essi vedevano la realtà fisica come l’opera di un dio minore e ritenevano il regno materiale malvagio e contrapposto alla divinità di quello spirituale.5 Per i neoplatonici, invece, il mondo terreno non corrisponde al regno del male, e la dimensione materiale non è che meno perfetta di quella spirituale a causa della sua 2 H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled. London: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1877. 3 Ibid. 4 B. Arkins, “Yeats: Platonist, Gnostic, or What?”. In J. Finneran, a cura di, Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies, vol. VII. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1990. 5 D. P. Tryphonopoulos, Op. Cit., 1996. 4 maggiore distanza da Dio, il quale è però unico e onnicomprensivo.6 Pur ammettendo la molteplicità del reale, Plotino riesce a ricondurla a un’unità assoluta, tanto che il concetto di Uno diviene il fondamento della sua filosofia e l’ambizione massima dell’uomo.7 H. P. Blavatsky sostiene che l’universo sia basato su un meccanismo di espansione e contrazione, in cui l’unità, divenuta molteplice, tende poi a tornare una. I due processi corrisponderebbero a un transito dal non-essere all’essere e viceversa, e il ciclo si ripeterebbe poi eternamente a fasi alterne, ricominciando da una nuova espansione.8 W. B. Yeats condivideva queste idee, che si presentano in modo piuttosto evidente in A Vision e nelle opere letterarie che l’autore scrisse ispirandosi a tale saggio. Il sistema neoplatonico delle emanazioni (ipostasi) può spiegare, in termini filosofici, questi peculiari concetti, descrivendo la creazione dell’universo come la caduta di quest’ultimo nella materia e nel molteplice da un’originaria e perfetta condizione unitaria, alla quale sarebbe possibile tornare ripercorrendo a ritroso la stessa ‘strada’.9 Secondo i neoplatonici, al momento della creazione un divino che è potenza latente, eterna e incausata si manifestò, affermando in prima istanza il suo essere tramite l’emanazione del proprio aspetto tangibile e attivo: quello che Plotino chiama Intelletto, il logos greco. Il processo consiste essenzialmente nello sdoppiamento tra soggetto pensante e oggetto pensato: la manifestazione del pensiero di Dio come realtà oggettiva e a sé stante, attiva e operativa. Il logos pensa tutti gli infiniti pensieri possibili: è il progetto della creazione. Se il non-essere primigenio che può essere chiamato col nome di Uno è innegabilmente la potenza di tutte le cose, l’Intelletto rappresenta la prima ideazione di tutte le forme che saranno dell’essere.10 Il sistema è meccanicistico e, secondo la cabala, che, come la filosofia dei pitagorici, presenta delle forti analogie con le ipostasi neoplatoniche,11 il dio ineffabile Ein-Sof, passivo e privo di pensiero, non agisce per volontà propria, ma obbedendo alla sua natura e secondo la fatalità della legge che incorpora.12 6 D. P. Tryphonopoulos, Op. Cit., 1996. 7 Elmer O’Brien, The Essential Plotinus. New York: Mentor Books, 1964. 8 H. P. Blavatsky, Op. Cit., 1877. 9 Elmer O’Brien, Op. Cit. New York: Mentor Books, 1964. 10 N. Abbagnano, Filosofi e filosofie nella storia. Torino: Paravia, 1986. 11 D. P. Tryphonopoulos, Op. Cit., 1996. 12 H. P. Blavatsky, Op. Cit., 1877. 5 Dio non è dunque un’entità personificata. La causa prima è il non-essere: potenza che, secondo il principio berkeleiano di esse est percipi,13 si rende tangibile creando l’universo attraverso la generazione, dall’unità non percepita, di un intero sistema di opposti. La realtà manifesta è vista da molte religioni e scuole filosofiche come originata dal conflitto di forze contrarie, spesso concepite come maschili e femminili. Tra di esse vi sono guerra e amore, distruzione e creazione, ma soprattutto vi è percezione, e quindi genesi e vita. Questi concetti sono cruciali per la comprensione delle idee esposte da Yeats in A Vision e in molte delle sue opere poetiche che saranno analizzate in questo studio.
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