The Posthumous Dimension of the Poetry of Vittorio Sereni and Giorgio Caproni

Angelini, Nicola (2018) The posthumous dimension of the poetry of Vittorio Sereni and Giorgio Caproni. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/9093/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Posthumous Dimension of the Poetry of Vittorio Sereni and Giorgio Caproni Nicola Angelini Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Modern Languages and Cultures College of Arts University of Glasgow October 2017 Abstract In 1936 Olga Franzoni, Caproni’s girlfriend, dies of septicaemia. In 1943 Sereni is taken prisoner, thus beginning a two-year period of captivity. The impact of these episodes on Caproni’s and Sereni’s poetry has been thoroughly analysed, and to conceive of them as watersheds in the individual path of either poet thus comes as natural. However, what critics have less organically delved into is the possibility of considering these episodes as pivotal in shaping a more definite turning point, representing the moment from which Caproni’s and Sereni’s poetry becomes, in many respects, ‘posthumous’. Building on Giulio Ferroni’s idea of ‘postumo’, this study seeks to propose a critical lens through which to examine the oeuvre of both Sereni and Caproni. Through recourse to categories such as ‘end’ and ‘after’, I will explore the thematic implications of the nexus between poetry and experience for both Sereni and Caproni. 2 Table of contents List of abbreviations 6 INTRODUCTION 8 CHAPTER I – THE POSTHUMOUS DIMENSION OF THE POETRY OF VITTORIO SERENI AND GIORGIO CAPRONI 15 o Sereni and Caproni as posthumous poets 20 o To the root of posthumousness: the ‘essere dopo’ of Sereni and Caproni 27 CHAPTER II – THE MARKING OF THE CAESURA 33 ~ The Caesura – Part I. Sereni’s Diario d’Algeria 34 o ‘End’ and ‘after’: the framework of our analysis 34 o Sereni’s return: existential and poetic concerns 36 o A diary written ‘afterwards’ 41 o Inside Diario. Structural and thematic features: the end of youth 42 o The eponymous section: the io’s posthumous declaration 46 o The moment ‘henceforth’ 51 o Conclusion 54 ~ The Caesura – Part II. Caproni and the years of grief 55 o The theme of Death 55 o Grief and death between Cronistoria and Il Passaggio d’Enea: Caproni and Olga 58 o Cronistoria: ‘the death of the tu’ 62 o ‘Lutto’ as a twofold end 66 o ‘Effectivity’ and ‘knowledge’ of death 69 o Olga’s persistence: towards the residue 73 o Conclusion 76 CHAPTER III – THE RESIDUE 78 ~ The Residue – Part I. Le ceneri 80 o On the ambivalence of the element of ‘ceneri’ 81 o The image of ‘ceneri’ and the imagery of ‘spegnimento’ in the posthumousness of Ventisei 85 o Still on ‘ceneri’ in prose 91 o ‘Ceneri’ in Gli strumenti umani 93 o The imagery of ‘spegnimento’ in Gli strumenti umani 101 o Le ceneri and Le sei del mattino 107 o Conclusion 111 3 ~ The Residue – Part II. Il Deserto 111 o ‘Deserto’ in Caproni’s mature poetry. An overview 113 o ‘La morte della distinzione’: the desert of mass society 120 o The desert of war 126 o ‘Nel deserto della notte’. The desert and Olga 132 o Conclusion 137 CHAPTER IV – A NEW RELATION BETWEEN THE IO AND TIME AND SPACE 139 ~ Time and space – Part I. Sereni 141 o Frontiera and the horizon of expectation 142 o Gli strumenti umani and Stella variabile: the receding horizon of expectation 147 o The future of memory and the category of ‘guilt’ and ‘debt’ 152 o The suspension of time: ‘gioia’ and ‘festa’ 161 o Conclusion 170 ~ Time and space – Part II. Caproni 172 o From Come un’allegoria to Il congedo del viaggiatore cerimonioso: an initial overview of space 172 o From places to space: the problem of the ‘where’ in Caproni’s 177 mature poetry o The space (without time) of the hunt 181 o The space (without time) of ‘Asparizioni’ and the ‘where’ of 185 language o Conclusion 194 CONCLUSION 196 BIBLIOGRAPHY 202 4 Declaration of originality I declare that the thesis does not include work forming part of a thesis presented successfully for another degree. I declare that the thesis represents my own work except where referenced to other. 5 List of abbreviations Vittorio Sereni P Poesie, critical edn., ed. by Dante Isella, I Meridiani (Milano: Mondadori, 1995) PP Poesie e prose, ed. by Giulia Raboni (Milano: Mondadori, 2013) Diario Diario d’Algeria (1947) Diario 65 Diario d’Algeria (1965) Strumenti Gli strumenti umani (1965) Stella Stella variabile (1981) Giorgio Caproni OV Opera in versi, critical edn., ed. by Luca Zuliani, I Meridiani (Milano: Mondadori, 1998) Passaggio Il passaggio d’Enea (1956) Seme Il seme del piangere (1959) Congedo Il congedo del cacciatore cerimonioso & altre prosopopee (1965) Muro Il muro della terra (1975) Franco Il franco cacciatore (1982) Conte Il conte di Kevenhüller (1986) Gelo Il gelo della mattina (1952) IA Il mondo ha bisogno di poeti: Interviste e Autocommenti, ed. by Melissa Rota (Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2014) 6 7 INTRODUCTION Born in 1913 and 1912, Vittorio Sereni and Giorgio Caproni both belong, poetically, to what has been often defined as the ‘terza generazione’, to which Attilio Bertolucci (1911-2000) and Mario Luzi (1914-2005) also belong.1 However, a distinction can be immediately made, between, on the one hand, Sereni, Caproni and Bertolucci, and Luzi on the other. The by now canonical line drawn by Mengaldo distinguishes, in fact, between ‘poeti esistenziali’ and ‘poeti orfici’: c’è da un lato la tendenza di chi si richiama a un filone orfico-sapienziale e attraverso la poesia intende affermare niente di meno che una verità in qualche modo trascendentale: diciamo appunto, Luzi e Zanzotto, l’attacco dei quali è infatti nell’ermetismo strictu sensu e a ritroso nella grande lirica primo-romantica da Coleridge a Holderlin. Dall’altro c’è quella di coloro che praticano invece una poesia esistenziale, e s’accontentano di partecipare un’esperienza: Bertolucci, Caproni, Sereni, con le loro ascendenze sabiane e la loro utilizzazione, in sintesi, antiermetica di Montale. La parola dei primi è necessariamente impositiva e quasi intimidatoria, quella dei secondi comunicativa e interrogativa […].2 Hinging upon the word ‘experience’, Mengaldo’s distinction identifies a common ground between the poetry of Sereni and Caproni which is extraneous to other critical categorisations. Indeed, while Sereni has often been regarded as continuing a major lyrical tradition, Caproni has usually been grouped with a more peripheral ‘linea antinovecentesca’.3 In Sulla poesia moderna, Guido Mazzoni deploys the metaphor of the ‘map’ to mark out the literary space of modern poetry according to the role and solidity of the io, placing Sereni at the centre of the city (which is constituted by ‘classicismo lirico moderno’) and Caproni on the outskirts, within the ‘periferie antiliriche’.4 Any such categorisation presents, however, a certain degree of inaccuracy, as the boundaries between different groups of poets, between one tradition and the other, are inevitably moveable.5 For this reason, the notion of experience may offer a more reliable framework. 1 See Anna Dolfi, Terza generazione: Ermetismo e oltre (Roma: Bulzoni, 1997). 2 Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo, La tradizione del Novecento: Nuova serie (Firenze: Vallecchi Editore, 1987), pp. 20-21. 3 Cf. Alberto Casadei, Il Novecento (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2005), pp. 81-84. For a reading of Sereni’s poetry within the framework of lyricism, see Stefano Giovannuzzi, ‘La persistenza della lirica: per una rilettura forte del Novecento’ and ‘Sereni fra Gli strumenti umani e Stella variabile: la condizione postuma della poesia’, in La persistenza della lirica. La poesia italiana da Pavese a Pasolini (Firenze: Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2012), pp. VII-XVIII and 123-140. 4 Guido Mazzoni, Sulla poesia moderna (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2005), pp. 173-210. 5 Ibid., p. 177. See also Paolo Giovannetti, Modi della poesia italiana contemporanea: Forme e tecniche dal 1950 a oggi (Bologna: Carocci, 2005), pp. 28-30. 8 A quick glance at some interviews given by Sereni and Caproni may help pinpoint references to the vital interplay of poetry and experience. ‘Io non sono mai stato capace di conquistare una nuova consapevolezza, di aderire a una nuova posizione, per via intellettuale; mi è sempre stato necessario passare attraverso delle esperienze, restarne scottato’, Sereni claims in 1962.6 In 1989, Caproni likewise holds that ‘se tanti attuali scrittori partoriscono opere sciape […] è appunto perché non hanno una forte esperienza di vita: non hanno, insomma, nulla di concreto da raccontare’.7 This interrelation between experience and poetry (what Wilhelm Dilthey has defined, in Poetry and experience, as Erlebnis) underpins the present study taken in its entirety.8 In exploring the ways in which two specific experiences – namely imprisonment and grief – inform Sereni’s and Caproni’s poetry, respectively, this study seeks to propose a critical lens through which to examine the oeuvre of both. I will argue that the idea of ‘posthumousness’ put forward by Giulio Ferroni in Dopo la fine, Per una letteratura possibile provides a vantage point from which we can investigate the diachronic development of Sereni’s and Caproni’s poetry.

Load more