With a narrative core determined by the mixture of literature and painting – between the figure and the texts of Henry James and the famous painting, The Storm, by the painter from Castelfranco Veneto – The Storm. The mystery of Giorgione, a novel by Paolo Maurensig (2009), focuses on the obsession of the American writer with the canvas preserved in the Galleries of the Academy of Venice, which is the background to the realization of The Aspern papers. A young writer, the protagonist of the novel, ideally traces the vicissitudes of the American literary critic who in the story of Henry James is looking for the papers of the poet Jeffrey Aspern and, back in the lagoon city to prepare the cinematographic reduction of the Jamesian text, he also puts himself in search of a notebook and some papers that would compose an unpublished story by James himself on the mystery of the famous Giorgionesque painting. A double investigation which reveals the double dimension of Venice, the scenery common to the two narrative lines, a nineteenth-century and a contemporary one, a city that in Maurensig’s novel interprets the dual role of background and active element in the development of events. A city that due to its particular conformation is the same over time, but changes continuously reflecting the feelings and emotions of the characters: a double Venice that confirms, in its substantial incisiveness and suggestion, its own immutable function of real character of the novel.

Riflessi e sfumature di Venezia, tra Paolo Maurensig ed Henry James

Alberto Zava
2021-01-01

Abstract

With a narrative core determined by the mixture of literature and painting – between the figure and the texts of Henry James and the famous painting, The Storm, by the painter from Castelfranco Veneto – The Storm. The mystery of Giorgione, a novel by Paolo Maurensig (2009), focuses on the obsession of the American writer with the canvas preserved in the Galleries of the Academy of Venice, which is the background to the realization of The Aspern papers. A young writer, the protagonist of the novel, ideally traces the vicissitudes of the American literary critic who in the story of Henry James is looking for the papers of the poet Jeffrey Aspern and, back in the lagoon city to prepare the cinematographic reduction of the Jamesian text, he also puts himself in search of a notebook and some papers that would compose an unpublished story by James himself on the mystery of the famous Giorgionesque painting. A double investigation which reveals the double dimension of Venice, the scenery common to the two narrative lines, a nineteenth-century and a contemporary one, a city that in Maurensig’s novel interprets the dual role of background and active element in the development of events. A city that due to its particular conformation is the same over time, but changes continuously reflecting the feelings and emotions of the characters: a double Venice that confirms, in its substantial incisiveness and suggestion, its own immutable function of real character of the novel.
2021
Le città italiane nelle letterature del XX secolo
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/3745175
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