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Developing a Poetics of Ordinariness: Language, Literature and Communication in Gianni Celati' s Le avventure di Guizzardi, La banda de; sospiri and Lunario dei paradiso Monica Powers Department of Italian Studies, McGill University, Montreal September 2005 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts © Monica Powers, 2005 Library and Bibliothèque et 1+1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-24912-3 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-24912-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell th es es le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. ln compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. ••• Canada Abstract During the 1970s, Gianni Celati uses his novels as a workshop for his investigation into language, literature and communication. Le avventure di Guizzardi, La banda dei sospiri and Lunario deI paradiso are crucial works in which Celati develops a style based on oral language as a way of bringing life closer to art and escaping the self-referentiality of the literary vanguard. Celati also experiments with a poetics of "ordinariness," both in style and content, as a means ofbroadening his audience and the reach ofhis social commentary. An examination ofCelati's novels ofthis period reveal an intellectual that is critical of the ways that society uses literature and language to further disenfranchise its weakest members. He invites intellectuals to re-examine of the value of language and literature, but also ordinary people to become writers themselves so that new voices may be heard. Résumé Pendant les années 1970, Gianni Celati utilise ses romans comme un atelier pour sa recherche sur le langage, la littérature et la communication. Le avventure di Guizzardi, La banda dei sospiri et Lunario dei paradiso sont des romans fondamentaux dans lesquels Celati développe un style axé sur le langage oral afin de rapprocher l'art à la vie ordinaire et d'échapper aux tendances auto-référentielles de l'avant-garde littéraire. CelatÎ est également à la recherche d'un poétique de "l'ordinaire," dans le style aussi bien que dans le contenu, poétique qui lui permetterait d'atteindre un plus vaste public et de donner plus d'envergure à sa critique sociale. Un examen des romans de Celati de cette période découvre un intellectuel qui critique la façon de laquelle, dans notre société, la littérature et le langage sont utilisés pour exclure les plus faibles et démunis. Il invite les intellectuels à questionner la valeur du langage et de la littérature, et les gens ordinaires à faire entendre leur voix en devenant eux-mêmes écrivains. Acknowledgements 1 would like to thank the McGill University ltalian Studies Department for their support in the writing of this work. 1 would like to especially thank my supervisor, Professor Eugenio Bolongaro, for bis support, bis encouragement and bis confidence in my abilities. Without bis careful editing and thoughtful attention, this work would not have been possible. His seemingly endless knowledge and intellectual curiosity have been an inspiration to me over the past two years. 1 would also like to thank Dianna Huculak for her feedback and Matt Huculak for bis help in translating the abstract. Finally, 1 would also like to thank Cristiana Furlan for participating in many, many conversations about Gianni Celati and the 1970s without (much) complaint. Table of Contents 1. Introduction: Gianni Celati's position in 1970s Italy .......................................... l 2. Deciphering the language of madness in Le owenture di Guizzardi................. 13 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 13 2. Guizzardi's mad raving: Celati's development of an "oralized" style .... 14 3. Assigning blame for Guizzardi's madness .............................................. 20 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 31 3. Negotiating body and language in La banda dei sospiri .................................... 33 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 33 2. Stranger than (most) fiction: Celati's ordinary tale ................................. 35 3. Telling the truth about bodily reality ...................................................... .40 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 54 4. (Re)discovering the value of storytelling in Lunario deI Paradiso ................. 57 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 57 2. Community and truthfulness: the principles ofCelati's meta-narrative .. 59 3. Giovanni's quest: growing up to find obtainable desires ......................... 65 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 77 5. Conclusion: narrating our own stories ............................................................... 79 6. Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 84 Chapter 1 Gianni Celati's position in 1970s ltaly In later years, awash with thè heady sincerity and relative calm of the late 1980s and 90s, Gianni Celatijudges his work from the 1970s rather harshly. He condemns himself as getting caught up in a pompous intellectual quagmire, remarking ofhis earlier critical work: "Quello che mi colpisce è l' astruseria dellinguaggio che usavo allora, e il disastroso intelletualismo di tutte le mie frasi" (qtd. in Pedullà 366). He also dismisses his novels of the period as mannerist and "wasted breath," claiming that he was writing for the sake of writing with little real substance (Lausten 108). In fact, he goes so far as to revise and republish his main novels of the 1970s, Le avventure di Guizzardi, La banda dei sospriri and Lunario di paradiso, under the title Parlament; buffi in 1989. In this new edition, Celati adds an introduction and explanatory subtitles to the three novels, which re-emphasize their autobiographical and familial elements.1 More importantly, however, he makes extensive textual changes, substantially rewriting Lunario dei paradiso. The intended effect ofthese interventions is to turn the three novels into a trilogy well after the fact, and Celati goes so far as to claim that they follow a Dantesque structure, as Pia Schwartz Lausten explains: "i romanzi illusterebbero quindi un viaggio dantesco che inizia nell'inferno (Le avventure di Guizzardi), per spostarsi nel purgatorio (La banda dei sospin) e finire nel paradiso (Lunario dei paradiso)" (Lausten 108). Celati seems to do all that he can to recontextualize his 1970s novels into a late 1980s cultural 1 The new titles read as follows: Le avventure di Guizzardi (storia di un senzafamiglia), La banda dei . sospiri (romanzo d'infanzia) and Lunario dei paradiso (esperienze d'un ragazzo all'estero). The book aiso inclw1es a newpreface, "Congedo dell'aurore dalsuo libro." 2 milieu, discounting the original novels and making them more lite bis later work, particularly in the case of Lunario deI paradiso. This recontextualization constitutes in fact a sustained reinterpretation by the author of bis own work. Such a reinterpretation is undoubtedly interesting but it does not "erase" the original works; on the contrary it makes it even more apparent that Celati' s 1970s fictio~ including the characteristics that he later regrets, were a serious response on the part of the author to contemporary intellectual, social and political situations. In the 1970' s, Celati looks to emergent literary theory for possible ways of "saving" literature at a time when many were announcing its imminent demise. As Pia Schwartz Lausten explains, the original novels

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