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Antologiaitaliana.Pdf DIPARTIMENTO DI STUDI EUROPEI AMERICANI E INTERCULTURALI SAPIENZA - UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA © Dipartimento di Studi Europei Americani e Interculturali 2012 © RCS Libri S.p.A. La Nuova Italia per i testi Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere, Marcel Proust, Alla ricerca del tempo perduto, James Joyce, Ulisse, Franz Kafka, Il processo, Luigi Pirandello, Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore di Roberto Antonelli Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron, William Shakespeare, Amleto, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Fëdor Dostoevskij, Delitto e castigo di Maria Serena Sapegno Elaborazione grafica dell’immagine in copertina di Roberto Di Bernardini Edizione fuori commercio destinata ai partecipanti al Convegno “La letteratura e la formazione degli europei” Il presente progetto è finanziato con il sostegno della Commissione europea. L’autore è il solo responsabile di questa comunicazione e la Commissione declina ogni responsabilità sull’uso che potrà essere fatto delle informazioni in essa contenute. Letteratura europea Il canone a cura di Roberto Antonelli Gioia Paradisi Maria Serena Sapegno 2012 Dipartimento di Studi Europei Americani e Interculturali Indice 9 Introduzione 11 Iliade di Omero ROBERTO NICOLAI 23 Odissea di Omero PIERO BOITANI 35 Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri ROBERTO ANTONELLI 45 Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca ROBERTO ANTONELLI 55 Decameron di Giovanni Boccaccio MARIA SERENA SAPEGNO 65 Amleto di William Shakespeare MARIA SERENA SAPEGNO 79 Don Chisciotte della Mancia di Miguel de Cervantes INES RAVASINI 93 Faust di Johann Wolfgang Goethe MARIA SERENA SAPEGNO 105 Madame Bovary di Gustave Flaubert MARIA SERENA SAPEGNO 115 I fiori del male di Charles Baudelaire LUIGI SEVERI 125 Delitto e castigo di Fëdor Dostoevskij MARIA SERENA SAPEGNO 135 Guerra e pace di Lev Tolstoj CESARE G. DE MICHELIS 145 Alla ricerca del tempo perduto di Marcel Proust ROBERTO ANTONELLI 157 Ulisse di James Joyce ROBERTO ANTONELLI 167 Il processo di Franz Kafka ROBERTO ANTONELLI 181 Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore di Luigi Pirandello ROBERTO ANTONELLI Introduzione In un convegno tenutosi all’Università “Sapienza” di Roma il 15 e 16 giu- gno 2007 furono discussi i risultati di un sondaggio fra i docenti di una quindicina di università europee, volto a verificare se nella coscienza dei docenti europei esistesse un comune sentire riguardo all’esistenza di un canone letterario condiviso e se fosse quindi possibile immaginare un insegnamento letterario fondamentale comune a tutta l’Europa. Nel corso del Convegno fu avanzata anche l’idea di tradurre in pratica i risultati della ricerca, raccogliendo brani antologici delle opere più vota- te e proponendoli alla scuola secondaria europea come prima proposta di possibili letture comuni, derivata da un sondaggio certo preliminare ma abbastanza indicativo e comunque da affinare nel prossimo futuro e da aprire ad altre esperienze. Un minimo comun denominatore letterario europeo, a partire dalla scuola, che è sempre stata, per più di duemila anni, il principale veicolo della formazione giovanile. La letteratura nel corso del tempo ha svolto un ruolo fondamentale per la formazione dell’immaginario e del sistema affettivo delle giovani gene- razioni, in tutta Europa, e in particolare in Italia, per la funzione attribui- ta alla letteratura nella costituzione di un sentimento unitario. Ci siamo pertanto chiesti se la letteratura potesse svolgere ancora un tale ruolo positivo, malgrado la presenza sempre più forte dei moderni mezzi di comunicazione di massa. Abbiamo risposto positivamente alla domanda, soprattutto considerando che gli archetipi dell’immaginario mediatico derivano in qualche modo e comunque da quelli elaborati in centinaia d’anni nelle letterature dei vari paesi europei e che proprio nella com- prensione della loro relazione con le comunicazioni di massa può essere arricchito il senso critico dei giovani, la capacità di interpretare e agire cri- ticamente rispetto alla quantità di informazioni che quotidianamente ven- gono immesse in rete. L’antologia è un primo risultato di quella proposta, resa possibile da un nuovo sondaggio svolto nella scuola secondaria e nelle università di cin- Introduzione que paesi dell’Unione Europea: Germania, Italia, Portogallo, Romania, Spagna. Raccoglie brani di quindici opere, da Omero a Kafka, più una sedicesima opera, “nazionale” (o meglio “areale”) con cui i partecipanti di ogni paese possono integrare la lista. Per l’Italia è stato scelto Sei perso- naggi in cerca d’autore di Luigi Pirandello, ovvero di uno dei massimi innovatori, nel mondo e non solo in Italia, del teatro novecentesco. La decisione di limitare la scelta del canone ad autori europei non è dovuta ad aprioristiche chiusure: se oggi è inevitabile pensare ad un cano- ne mondiale, è anche vero che la letteratura europea presenta caratteristi- che diverse da quelle americane o asiatiche o africane, se non altro per- ché è l’unica in cui il nesso tradizione-innovazione, così organico allla scrit- tura e all’interpretazione letteraria, poggia su una storia di quasi tremila anni. Una cosa però è certa: anche per quanto riguarda la letteratura occor- rerà lavorare per un’Europa aperta, non chiusa in se stessa, consapevole certo della propria specificità e identità, ma proprio per questo curiosa delle letterature e dei canoni di altri continenti (posto che tale è la scala su cui è insieme interessante e opportuno ragionare e confrontarsi). L’antologia, del tutto sperimentale, è rivolta ai giovani, come primi desti- natari, per affiancare la lettura degli autori “nazionali” previsti dai pro- grammi ministeriali: è ridotta all’essenziale, in modo da non interferire nella programmazione scolastica, ma speriamo possa ugualmente risultare efficace per stimolare alla lettura e all’interpretazione critica. Iliade di Omero La prima opera della letteratura occidentale non è un’opera letteraria, almeno se consideriamo la letteratura come legata alla scrittura, alle lit- terae: nasce in una società caratterizzata da oralità primaria, si sviluppa e prende forma in un contesto aurale e soltanto relativamente tardi viene fissata per iscritto. Peraltro la lingua greca non ha un termine per indi- care la letteratura e presso i Greci soltanto nella prima metà del IV seco- lo si comincerà a riflettere su quello che noi chiamiamo lo specifico let- terario. Un’altra grande differenza rispetto alle opere delle letterature moderne è l’assenza di un autore: una differenza sentita già dai Greci, e piuttosto precocemente, dato che ne crearono uno, come si inventa la figura del fondatore di una città o l’antenato di una stirpe aristocratica. Omero nac- que probabilmente ad opera di una corporazione di rapsodi, gli Omeridi, che nel VI secolo era attiva nelle feste panelleniche e locali e che si die- dero un capostipite. Col tempo sarebbero sorte persino tradizioni biogra- fiche, anche queste integralmente inventate. Nella fase orale le recitazioni dell’epos seguivano una dinamica complessa, come risulta chiaro dalle scene, soprattutto dell’Odissea, in cui compaiono aedi: il pubblico interagiva con l’aedo e ne condizio- nava le scelte. Tra l’aedo e il pubblico si stabiliva un rapporto di empa- tia che era parte integrante dell’esecuzione. Il forte coinvolgimento emotivo del pubblico è ben espresso in due versi dell’Odissea, relati- vi a Odisseo che aveva raccontato le sue vicende (13. 1 s.): «Disse così e immobili erano tutti, in silenzio / erano presi d’incanto nella sala ombrosa» (trad. Aurelio G. Privitera). Il proemio dell’Odissea ci può fare da guida nel tentativo di comprendere come si svolgessero le esi- bizioni degli aedi: dopo aver presentato Odisseo, l’eroe polytropos, vengono esposte in sintesi le sue peregrinazioni e si fa cenno dell’e- pisodio dei buoi del Sole. A questo punto, al verso 10, il poeta invo- ca nuovamente la Musa: «Racconta qualcosa anche a noi, o dea figlia di Zeus». Ho riportato il verso nella traduzione di Aurelio Privitera che, R. Nicolai come ha notato Luigi Enrico Rossi1, e come quasi tutte le altre tradu- zioni, non rende ragione dell’avverbio hamothen, che significa «da un punto qualsiasi» (LSJ: «from some place or other»). Letteralmente il verso significa: «Di queste cose da un punto qualsiasi, o dea figlia di Zeus, dì anche a noi». Il proemio dell’Odissea testimonia nella forma più esplicita che non esi- steva neanche un testo che servisse da riferimento fisso, esisteva soltanto un repertorio di canti, dal quale l’aedo poteva liberamente scegliere, indi- viduando anche il momento del racconto da cui prendere le mosse. I poemi epici, nella prima fase della loro elaborazione e almeno fino alla cosiddetta redazione monumentale (la definizione è di Gilbert Murray), e in certa misura anche dopo, non avevano quindi neanche quella caratteri- stica che per noi è normalmente associata a un’opera letteraria: l’unità e la stabilità del testo. D’altra parte proprio i proemi erano tra le sezioni più esposte a possibili variazioni e adattamenti: dell’Iliade, oltre al proemio per noi abituale («Cantami, o diva, del Pelide Achille l’ira funesta», il primo verso nella celebre traduzione di Vincenzo Monti), circolavano nell’anti- chità due proemi alternativi, evidentemente realizzati per diverse circo- stanze di esecuzione e per diverse forme di organizzazione della materia. Ne conosciamo l’inizio. Il primo suona così: «Narratemi ora, o Muse che abitate le case dell’Olimpo, / in che modo l’ira colse il Pelide / e lo splen- dido figlio di Latona. Costui infatti, adirato col re, …». Del secondo posse- diamo un solo verso: «Le Muse canto e Apollo famoso per l’arco». Quest’ultimo proemio si presenta come un inno alle divinità tutelari del canto, le Muse e Apollo, e si può paragonare ai cosiddetti Inni omerici, il cui scopo era proprio quello di introdurre il canto epico celebrando la divi- nità alla quale era dedicata la festa. Odisseo che racconta ai Feaci è l’alter ego del poeta dell’Odissea, il suo doppio: come l’aedo non partiva dall’inizio, cioè dalla partenza degli Achei da Troia, così Odisseo (7.
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