Gli orienti da sogno di Elio Vittorini

Abstract

This critical study focuses on the oriental fascination to be found in Elio Vittorini’s fiction, referring above all to the influence of The Arabian Nights. The paper aims to demonstrate how the oriental allure in the author’s production is bound, not only to the dimension of dream and childhood, but also to a regressive and fabulous eros. This thematic approach draws out from Vittorini’s pages (in particular, his novels, Il garofano rosso and Conversazione in Sicilia) a proper myth of the oriental world, seemingly in contrast with the instinctive and wild American one, yet overlapping with it. The final section of this critical study illustrates how, in the sign of utopia, the oriental and American legends elaborated on by Vittorini, present explicit points of contact, such as metaphors of the inevitable necessity of different dimensions, which may help one overcome the affront of reality, while remaining deeply rooted in an ancient sensation that cannot be renounced, such as the dreams of our childhood.