Oltre il vuoto dello spazio. Il segreto indicibile del viaggio lunare in Cancroregina di Tommaso Landolfi

Abstract

Published in 1950, Cancroregina is located on the ridge that separates the first part of Landolfi’s production, characterized by a preminently narrative interest, from the second, in which the typical themes and central motifs of the author’s reflection veer towards more urgent existential questions, which will then find perfect manifestation and adherence in the diaristic construction of LA BIERE DU PECHEUR, Rien va, Des mois. The present contribution intends to examine the narrative modalities with which in the aforementioned works Landolfi elaborates, redefines and resemantises the classic topos of space travel, questioning the symbolic significance that has its main meaning. The aim is to illuminate the central passages of the progressive mental and existential degeneration and the consequent disease of language that affect the protagonist, paying attention to the contextual phenomenon of upheaval and formal implosion that works, within the text, to faithfully reflect the physical and moral annihilation of the main character.