The irreverent and irrational light in some texts by Carlo Emilio Gadda
Ritratto di Carlo Emilio Gadda , 1921 / Portrait of Carlo Emilio Gadda , 1921
Sede del Politecnico di Milano in piazza Cavour / Seat of the Politecnico di Milano in Piazza Cavour , Milan
Carlo Emilio Gadda ( 1893-1973 ) graduated in industrial engineering in 1920 , when the Milan Polytechnic was in piazza Cavour . From 1920 to 1935 he worked as an engineer in Italy and abroad , alternating this profession and his writing activity . In his initial literary compositions , the subject of his incisive satire was the Milanese society of the 1930s . First of all , he focussed on his colleagues , the engineers , who he described as being confounded by integral calculus and favoured by projection . Then , on the Polytechnic , “ I am your Polytechnic , and you shall have no other Polytechnics before Me ”. Gadda remembered that the classroom which had no windows was illuminated by “ hanging enamelled steel dishes … where one had to squint to be able to draw , under those lights at 2 p . m . … and from which , in a fifty-year period , – estimates the author of Nuove battute sul Politecnico vecchio ( New comments about the old Polytechnic ) – twenty-eight thousand engineers came out short sighted ”. The Milanese way of life during the Fascist period ( 1926-1942 ) seemed “ too sloppy , too vulgar ” to Gadda , and also the feats of the new architects turned him yellow like jaundice . The “ sharp and relentless ” light of an electric lamp , in La madonna dei filosofi , ( The Philosophers ’ Madonna ), made Gadda note the uncivil behaviour of the Italians in public places , throwing “ very typical sediments and leftovers all over the ‘ Garden of Empire ’. Within the sky of Italy , which is supposed to be this garden – Gadda highlights –, shining stars were sapphires for all lovers .” During World War II ( 1939-1945 ), Gadda recomposes his irreverent yet healthy satire , with the intention of redeeming the fundamental values of the Milanese bourgeoisie , mainly work . Without giving up on the mockery of society , the author of Un concerto di centoventi professori ( A concert of a hundred and twenty professors ) focusses his attention on the theatre lighting , and carefully describes the work carried out in order to position the lights : “ crude arc lamps , suspended with long ropes to the framework of the curtain , and by these ropes held at the same level as the balcony , or slightly above it , so that they hit the people straight in the eyes .” A description that is a prelude , a few years before , to Utopie ( Utopias ), 1964 Lucio
Fontana ’ s Ambiente spaziale ( Spatial environment ) made in collaboration with Nanda Vigo for the XIII Milan Triennale , which has been recently re-proposed at HangarBiccocca in Milan , where lights destabilize the spectator , altering the perception of space . After completing his studies in philosophy , Gadda perfects his grotesque language in a series of literary masterpieces , which were created before and published in the Sixties . Among these : La cognizione del dolore ( Acquainted with Grief ), which , albeit being incomplete , is considered his most important work , where Gadda illustrates his irrational conception of light in the celebration of work , in a text that is in the typical style of Gadda : “ Oh ! along the path of generations , the light ! … which recedes , recedes … opaque … of unaltered becoming . But in days , in souls , what calculating hope ! … and abstract faith , stubborn charity . Every practice is an image , … zendado , motto , banner in the wind … the light , the light receded … and the endeavour urged its quarterings onwards , onwards : wanting to reach the fugitive west … And the breath of generations suffered , de semine in semen , from arms to arms . Until the incredible point of arrival .” Gadda , who liked to define himself as “ the convoluted Heraclitus from via San Simpliciano ,” the irrational , the one that leads “ until the incredible point of arrival ,” considered the reading of Acquainted with Grief as an itinerary of knowledge . Through a personal via crucis , the author precipitates in the glaring light of an “ exasperated awareness ,” and , nevertheless , poetry involuntarily breaks through , and Gadda gives in , accepting it as a light of hope , even though it is opaque and receding .
6 – to be continued . For “ Epiphanies of light ”, to date , the following short stories by Empio Malara have been published in LUCE : “ Alessandro Manzoni , a creator of light ” ( n . 317 , September 2016 ); “ Herman Melville . Light that invites us on a journey ” ( n . 321 , September 2017 ); “ Light and dark in the portrait of James Joyce as a young man ” ( n . 322 , December 2017 ); “ Flashes and lights in Hemingway ’ s A Farewell to Arms ” ( n . 323 , March 2018 ); " The artificial sun in The Magic Mountain ” by Thomas Mann " ( n . 324 , June 2018 )
EPIPHANIES OF LIGHT / LUCE 325 27