{"id":60347,"date":"2016-05-17T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T07:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/langhe.net\/60347\/pavese-langhe-modesta-divina-commedia-parte-1\/?lang=en"},"modified":"2019-10-10T17:36:44","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T15:36:44","slug":"pavese-langhe-modest-divine-comedy-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/langhe.net\/en\/60347\/pavese-langhe-modest-divine-comedy-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pavese and the Langhe: a modest Divine Comedy \u2013 Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

The title of this article will no doubt amaze numerous readers: comparing such an important piece of work as is Dante’s Divine Comedy with Pavese\u2019s work might actually seem to be somewhat of a fantasy, perhaps dictated by an excessive fixation in comparing the texts.<\/p>\n

Pavese\u2019s letter<\/h2>\n

In fact, reading one of Pavese\u2019s letters dated 1949 one discovers that relating Dante\u2019s masterpiece with the last work by the Piedmont writer is not at all an exaggerated gesture<\/strong>, rather it\u2019s the writer himself who describes his latest novel as follows:<\/p>\n

Io sono come pazzo perch\u00e9 ho avuto una mirabile visione (naturalmente di stalle, sudore contadinotti, verderame e letame ecc.) su cui dovrei costruire una modesta Divina Commedia. Ci penso sopra, e tutti i giorni diminuisce la tensione \u2013 che alle visioni siano necessarie le Beatrici? Bah, si vedr\u00e0.
\nCesare Pavese, lettera ad Adolfo ed Eugenia Ruata, 17 luglio 1949.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the passage, rather brief but extremely important with regard to the philology of our author\u2019s texts, it is quite clear how Pavese\u2019s experiment is to transpose the experience contained in Dante’s Comedy<\/strong> into a novel<\/strong>, which he wrote, finishing it rather quickly, between the autumn and winter of 1949 (which the July letter gives a clear preview).<\/p>\n

His “modest Divine Comedy”<\/h3>\n

In particular, the two most important elements of this quote are “admirable vision” and the parenthesis that follows it: Pavese\u2019s illumination<\/strong> is, like that of Dante’s Vita nova (where the same expression is probably taking from), the reason that drives the artist to create his work, compose and give shape to his idea; differently from the nature of Dante\u2019s work, however, Pavese intends to set his own work in a clearly rural setting<\/strong> of “contadinotti,” (farmers) namely that which for him represents the Langa scenario, often reflected in his novels.<\/p>\n

The Moon and the Bonfires<\/h2>\n

This way of interpreting The Moon and the Bonfires<\/a>\"\" has already been tested, albeit too timidly, and has given the first results of what might actually be a rewriting<\/strong> (in a very personal and revisited manner) of Dante’s masterpiece<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Pavese\u2019s last novel, in fact, contains a number of reasons that lend themselves to comparison, some of which disclosed particularly in \u2018The sea\u2019, a story in August Holiday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The conformity of the characters<\/h3>\n
\"Crediti<\/div><\/div>

Photo credit: Rutger Vos<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

First of all, particularly important for The moon and the Bonfires is the figure of Nuto<\/strong>, the great friend (and sometimes teacher) that Anguilla finds again on his return to Santo Stefano Belbo<\/a>, identifiable with the real figure of carpenter Giuseppe Scaglione<\/strong>, who earned the nickname that distinguishes him after receiving a warm “welcome” from Pavese during one of his visits at his home in Turin.<\/p>\n

With regard to the novel, he corresponds to Dante\u2019s Virgilio<\/strong> because he accompanies Anguilla on his return to his childhood home, acting as a true guide in relation to the change that the town has undergone during the protagonist\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

Nuto and Virgilio<\/h3>\n

There are several passages in which, while talking, Nuto illuminates his friend in a strong viriglian manner<\/strong>. An example may be the point at which, breaking the mythic-symbolic tension of the novel, he tells Anguilla, based on his partisan experience, of the political events that took place during the Second World War and the Resistance:<\/p>\n

Ci sedemmo all\u2019ombra di quattro canne, sull\u2019erba dura, e Nuto mi spieg\u00f2 perch\u00e9 il deputato non tornava. Dal giorno della liberazione – quel sospirato 25 aprile tutto era andato sempre peggio. In quei giorni s\u00ec che s\u2019era fatto qualcosa. Se anche i mezzadri e i miserabili del paese non andavano loro per il mondo, nell\u2019anno della guerra era venuto il mondo a svegliarli. C\u2019era stata gente di tutte le parti, meridionali, toscani, cittadini, studenti, sfollati, operai – perfino i tedeschi, perfino i fascisti eran serviti a qualcosa, avevano aperto gli occhi ai pi\u00f9 tonti, costretto tutti a mostrarsi per quello che erano, io di qua tu di l\u00e0, tu per sfruttare il contadino, io perch\u00e9 abbiate un avvenire anche voi. E i renitenti, gli sbandati,\u00a0avevano fatto vedere al governo dei signori che non basta la voglia per mettersi in guerra.
\nSi capisce, in tutto quel quarantotto s\u2019era fatto anche del male, s\u2019era rubato e ammazzato senza motivo, ma mica tanti: sempre meno – disse Nuto – della gente che i prepotenti di prima hanno messo loro su una strada o fatto crepare.
\nE poi? com\u2019era andata? Si era smesso di stare all\u2019erta, si era creduto agli alleati, si era creduto ai prepotenti di prima che adesso – passata la grandine – sbucavano fuori dalle cantine, dalle ville, dalle parrocchie, dai conventi. – E siamo a questo, – disse Nuto, – che un prete che se suona ancora le campane lo deve ai partigiani che gliele hanno salvate, fa la difesa della repubblica e di due spie della repubblica. Se anche fossero stati fucilati per niente, – disse, – toccava a lui fare la forca ai partigiani che sono morti come mosche per salvare il paese?
\nCesare Pavese, La luna e i fal\u00f2, capitolo XIII.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The reason for the change here is obvious, highlighted in particular by the political implications of the novel that ruins the search of the time lost in childhood<\/strong> (another extremely important aspect that binds Pavese to the Langhe).<\/p>\n

The proof of this lies in the fact that Anguilla, despite his friend\u2019s political hiatus, remains focused on the Gaminella (the hill on which he grew up along with the family that adopted him), that the two are observing, thinking of returning to it to see what effect time has had on it.<\/p>\n

Pavese & the Langhe: the other articles<\/h2>\n

Below is a list, in order of publication, of articles dedicated to Pavese\u2019s relationship with the territory, language and literature:<\/p>\n