“E fecine dell’arte sua, uno incantamento”. Notes on literature and visual arts in ‘Il primo libro delle Favole’ by Carlo Emilio Gadda

Abstract

In recent years, critics have increasingly emphasised the importance of the figurative and artistic component within Gadda's culture. It is also present in “The First Book of Fables”, a work long considered minor. The article analyses the references to the arts and the ecphrases (sometimes 'erroneous') present in it and tries to highlight how they have an important metapoetic and metatextual function. Central is in fact the problem of the representation of reality, of its mimesis through art and writing. In this regard, Gadda engages on the one hand in a tight polemic against the Neorealismo, and on the other reiterates the close inter-relationship between image and word within his writing.