At Capriolo's hotel: heaven, hell and otherworlds in 'Il dopio regno'

Ania, GF

Abstract

Paola Capriolo has stated that the kind of truth she searches for and tries to express is outside the sphere of everyday life. She has also claimed: 'Per me la letteratura non può essere che astrazione; anche autoestraniazione e distacco dall'io. Quindi sia dalla realtà che dal realismo'. Her work stands in contrast to the realistic mode of writing and the novels of social comment and protest prevalent in the Italy of the 1960s and early 1970s (exemplified by authors such as Leonardo Sciascia and Dacia Maraini). Instead she focuses on traditional, timeless themes, embracing the preference for tales of the imagination and fantasy shared by Italo Calvino, Antonio Tabucchi, and Anna Maria Ortese, albeit in different contexts. However, she is distanced from writers like these by her nostalgic return to a more formal Italian, displaying little of the linguistic experimentalism of the 1980s and 1990s (Tabucchi, Alessandro Baricco) or the more 'provocative and innovative' styles and topics of very recent years.

Citation

Ania, G. At Capriolo's hotel: heaven, hell and otherworlds in 'Il dopio regno'. Italian Studies, 54, 132-156

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Deposit Date: Feb 11, 2009
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 11, 2009
• Journal: Italian Studies
• Print ISSN: 0075-1634
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 54
• Pages: 132-156
• Keywords: Italian literature
• Related Public URLs: http://www.maney.co.uk/journals/italianstudies; http://www.maney.co.uk/search?fwaction=show&fwid=174