« This volume revisits, with a fresh perspective, the personality and production of the great Italian writer Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893-1973), author among others of The cognition of pain (1957) and That ugly mess on Via Merulana (1963). The jury was won over by the originality of the approach which goes off the beaten track of traditional literary criticism. It’s a writer’s book about another writer.», underlines Jean Musitelli, president of the Prix Italiques jury.
« It is less a biography in the classic sense of the term than an invitation to follow the author on his journey of discovery of Gadda and his work, of deciphering a character who is in many ways enigmatic, far from any self-exhibition, and who transformed his existential pain into a flamboyant work through its telluric writing and disturbing through its irreducibly non-conformist content. »
Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893-1973) is the least known of the “giants” of the 20th century. If Joyce dominates the English century, Proust and Céline the French, Kafka and Musil the German-speaking, Gadda is undoubtedly the greatest Italian writer. Pasolini recognized him as the only master, the natural heir of Dante. Equipped with a detective story and a romantic testament, The Absolute Bachelor is a biography of this transalpine Rabelais whose virtuoso work combines the words of the common people and the great language of the classics. It is also an autobiography of the author, haunted by Gadda since he was twenty. A burst of images accompanies this literary odyssey which takes us from Paris to Milan and Rome, from Moscow to Nairobi and Cythera. In this wandering story, a little guy from the suburbs becomes a real reader and asserts himself as a writer, in a strange proximity with this distant and brilliant Italian cousin.
– The editor’s summary for The Absolute Single
A French non-profit association, Italiques brings together individuals (academics, writers, artists, critics, journalists, diplomats and senior civil servants) or institutions (cultural or academic). Its objective is to contribute to better mutual knowledge between Italians, French, French-speaking, Spanish and Portuguese through meetings, cultural, academic and artistic exchanges.
This year’s jury for the Prix Italiques brought together Anne-Marie Matard-Bonucci, Letizia Norci-Cagiano, Florence Raut, Isabel Violante, Paolo Grossi, Lodovico Luciolli, Xavier Tabet, Jean-Claude Zancarini, with Jean Musitelli as president.
READ – Philippe Bordas Michel Dard Prize 2024
The award ceremony to Philippe Bordas will take place on Monday, December 9, at 7 p.m., at the Maison de l’Amérique Latine, in the presence of Jean-Paul Manganaro, writer and translator. Registrations take place at this address.
Last year, Daria Galateria won the award for Proust’s bestiarypublished by Sellerio in 2022.
Find the list of French and French-speaking literary prizes
Photo credits: Catherine Hélie / Éditions Gallimard
By Dispatch
Contact : [email protected]
Related News :