Salvatore Quasimodo Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Ernesto Livorni

Critical Essay by Ernesto Livorni

SOURCE: Livorni, Ernesto. “Isola di Ulisse: Nóstos as Exile in Salvatore Quasimodo's Poetry.” In Italiana VII: L'Esilio Come Certezza, La Ricerca D'Identità Culturale in Italia Dalla Rivoluzione Francese Ai Nostri Giorni, edited by Andrea Ciccarelli and Paolo Giordano, pp. 72-94. West Lafayette, Ind.: Bordighera, 1998.

In the following essay, Livorni makes connections between Quasimodo's translation of Homer's Odyssey, particularly the trope of exile, and the hermetic poetry of his first three collections, Acque e terre, Òboe sommerso and Erato e Apollion, arguing that Homer's theme of nóstos not only influenced the narrative style and thematic imagery of hermeticism but that the metaphor of the island actually supports the principles of Quasimodo's inward-looking hermetic poetry.

The most representative books of hermetic poetry were published, as it is known, in the first half of the Thirties: in this period, Gatto published his first two fine collections (Isola in 1932 and Morto ai...
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