DTCF Dergisi 58.2 (2018): 1535-1556 AN EXPERIMENTAL META-TRAVEL TO “THE HEADQUARTER OF THE ABSOLUTE”: THE INDIA OF GIORGIO MANGANELLI “KESİNLİĞİN GENEL MERKEZİ”NE DOĞRU DENEYİMSEL BİR ÜST-SEYAHAT: GIORGIO MANGANELLI'NİN HİNDİSTANI Cristiano BEDİN Dr, Öğr. Üyesi, İstanbul Üniversitesi, Edebiyat Fakültesi, Batı Dilleri ve Edebiyatları Bölümü, İtalyan Dili ve Edebiyatı Ana Bilim Dalı,
[email protected] Abstract This paper aims to analyze the travel book Esperimento con l'India (Experiment with India) by Giorgio Manganelli, highlighting especially the features that make it a “meta-travel”, an Makale Bilgisi experience that reshapes the traveler's previous literary, popular or stereotyped Gönderildiği tarih: 27 Ağustos 2018 knowledge. In Manganelli's work, a gradual abandonment of the eurocentrism typical of Kabul edildiği tarih: 6 Kasım 2018 the western progressive intellectuals can be seen, which facilitates a total immersion in the Yayınlanma tarihi: 28 Aralık 2018 Indian context, its culture, and its spirituality. The trip starts from Bombay and ends in Delhi, passing through Goa, Madras, and Calcutta and it is a gradual displacement of the writer who is shocked by a culture so distant from his own. This estrangement is felt as a Article Info deep unease and a psychological illness, culminating in the traveler's total self-loss and Date submitted: 27 August 2018 absorption in the Indian reality. Manganelli's experience, perhaps the most interesting Date accepted: 6 November 2018 travel “experiment” of the Italian literature of the 20th century, is, therefore, a journey to a Date published: 28 December 2018 special dimension of India, different from other European travelers' accounts.