The Works of Claudio Magris: Temporary Homes, Mobile Identities, European Borders Temporary Homes, Mobile Identities, European Borders

This publishing initiative seeks to bring the latest scholarship in Italian and Italian American history, literature, cinema, and cultural studies to a large audience of specialists, general readers, and students. I&IAS will feature works on modern Italy (Renaissance to the present) Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dediacation 6 Contents 7 Preface 9 Introduction 12 Claudio Magris’s geography of domesticity 13 1 Households of the Self 21 1.1 Stadelmann: dwelling in the space of the “-ex” 22 1.2 At the self ’s door: You Will Therefore Understand and Voices 29 1.3 Hosting life in the moment: A Different Sea and Il Conde 35 2 Homely Memories, Promised Homelands 43 2.1 A nomad and fugitive abode: Trieste and its narratives 44 2.2 Inferences from a Sabre: mapping the heart’s homestead 53 3 European Thresholds and Relocations 62 3.1 Mitteleuropa: a dislodged center 63 3.2 Danube: the liquid path to rooted homelessness 68 3.2.1 Fluctuating domiciles 69 3.2.2 Soluble sites 73 3.2.3 House, town, community 77 3.2.4 Flowing home? 82 4 From Snug Refuges to Ghastly Cells 87 4.1 Microcosms: the flâneur in his homescapes 88 4.1.1 Image masonry 88 4.1.2 Domestic aromas 91 4.1.3 Residential antinomies 97 4.2 Global unhomeliness: Blindly 102 5 Habitat and Habitus 113 5.1 The essayist and the tortoise 114 5.2 Edifices of values 118 5.3 The fortress and the drawbridge 127 Conclusion 134 Bibliography 138 Index 146 The first English book on contemporary Italian writer Claudio Magris, this study examines the connections between space and individual, national and European identity in his works. Magris invites us to cross the borders that enclose private and public spheres in order to discover the otherness within ourselves and reject the fanaticism of self-sameness. Through the recurring image of temporary homes, the book explores Magris's incessant search for meaning and values, aiming at a habitable life, where diversity and tolerance can prevail over all fundamentalisms. With a sophisticated theoretical Italian scholar, novelist, journalist, and philosopher Claudio Magris is among the most prominent of living European intellectuals. This study is the first comprehensive critical analysis of Magris's corpus for an English-speaking audience and addresses the crucial question of the return to humanism that is moving literature and theory forward. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-9 Households of the Self....Pages 10-31 Homely Memories, Promised Homelands....Pages 32-50 European Thresholds and Relocations....Pages 51-75 From Snug Refuges to Ghastly Cells....Pages 76-101 Habitat and Habitus....Pages 102-122 Conclusion....Pages 123-126 Back Matter....Pages 127-138