Meneghello and Proust's road

«S’incomincia con un temporale»

Abstract

The author proposes the thesis of a profound similarity between the incipit of Libera nos («S’incomincia con un temporale […]») and the famous episode of the madeleine in the first volume of Proust's Recherche. However, the author also notes the differences: Proust sets out all his distinctions on the two memories, voluntary and involuntary, leading to the thesis of the primacy of intuition over reason, and he is therefore theoretical, while Meneghello is elliptical. Ellipsis is moreover a constitutive stylistic feature of his style. The author wonders, however, whether Meneghello's page is influenced by reading Proust, or whether it is not rather a case of polygenesis, and leaves the answer open. The article also establishes a comparison with the narrative beginning of Giorgio Bassani's Giardino dei Finzi Contini.