Paesaggi dell’anima. Su alcuni interni della letteratura francese

Abstract

Landscapes of the Soul: On Some Home Interiors in French LiteratureBy means of an analysis of architectural features and furnishing elementspresent in a number of passages from French literature (such asthe most innovative French epistolary novel, Rousseau’s La NouvelleHéloïse, and two poems by Baudelaire and Mallarmé), this essay aimsto highlight recurrent motifs that reveal unforeseen consonances andresonances within the described environments (two dining rooms andone bedroom). The same motifs form a picture which reveals an intensifyingprocess of spoliation of the concrete elements present in therooms, as well as a marked loss in functionality. Such spoliation andloss are shown to be directly proportional to symbolic intensity and poignance.If the presence of an emotive connection between those placesand originary feelings related to fragile, lost, or unrealizable happinessremains constant, the poetical treatment of such themes becomes increasinglyrigorous and enigmatic.The piece is indebted on the one hand to a profoundly inspiring bookby Guido Paduano, Il testo e il mondo, and on the other to a sharedexperience of feelings in some ways related to the ones analyzed in thearticle, feelings forever intertwined with the memory of the author’sfriend Tiziana Goruppi.