Georges Güntert

Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, Jahrgang 67 (2018), Ausgabe 4, Seite 427 - 446

Eugenio Montale (1896–1981) is presently considered the most important poet of 20th century Italy. His first volume of poems, ‚Ossi di seppia‘ (Cuttlefish bones), published in 1925, appears to us as the experimental field of a poet in search of his own voice. By analysing two cycles of poems contained in the above-mentioned volume, we intend to provide an insight into the various stages of Montale’s poetic development. In ‚Sarcofaghi‘, Montale first compares his pessimistic attitude towards life with Keats’s aestheticism; he then considers death from a non-Christian point of view, positioning himself next to Foscolo and Leopardi; finally, he turns to his own creative work, assuming the mask of a sculptor looking out for new subjects. In ‚Mediterraneo‘, Montale deals with one of the main concerns of symbolism: he asks himself to what extent the communication between the poetic word and life is possible. In the thirties, Montale conceives a kind of „metaphysical poetry“, which is, however, only fully achieved with the invention of the myth surrounding the figure of Clizia.

Claudia Jacobi, Bernhard Huss, Cord-Friedrich Berghahn, Oliver Gent, Georges Güntert, Paolo Brusa, René Sternke

Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, Jahrgang 68 (2018), Ausgabe 2, Seite 243 - 270

Georges Güntert

Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, Jahrgang 64 (2014), Ausgabe 3, Seite 367 - 379

Carlo Emilio Gadda’s novel Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana only seems to belong to the genre of the thriller at first glance, in spite of the fact that in quick succession an armed robbery and a murder take place in the same building. The reason for this special status is not so much due to the absence of an unequivocally identified perpetrator as to the fact that two different discourses, the historico-political and the mythological, determine the narration. Liliana Balducci and Zamira Pacori cannot be compared as the first, even when dead, plays a central part in the historico-political allegory of the novel, and the second is a mythical figure reminiscent of Circe; as opposed to the historico-political sphere, in Zamira’s realm cyclical time reigns. Between Zamira’s machinations and the rhetoric of fascism founded on seduction there are, however, analogies to be found, which this essay seeks to highlight.