Meditazione e metamorfosi. Sul significato delle finestre cieche

SERRA, VALENTINA

2006-01-01

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Abstract

In literature, blind doors and windows often symbolize a form of denial of any possibility of "escape" and "salvation" from oppressive inwardness or, on the other hand, are a sort of protection from the dangers that come from a threatening and intruding world. This work, the product of participation at the European School of Comparative Studies (Pontignano, 2004), is an analysis of this literary theme and of its changing and sometimes conflicting values in works by Klaus Mann (Vergittertes Fenster, 1937), Heimito von Doderer (Die erleuchteten Fenster, 1951) and Peter Handke (Die Wiederholung). In this essay, the author reflects on the meaning of the architectural element as a symbol of a specific psychological or existential condition of human beings, as well as a metaphor for existence, and sometimes of the literary work itself. Blind windows represent a sort of evolution of the same item in the literary tradition and present resources, not completely analyzed even in the the rich works of Dostoevsky, Kafka, Moravia, Pavese.