Il tema dell’arte nei Sonetti di Shakespeare

Abstract

Starting with an appreciation of the metaliterary quality of modern writing, i.e. its ability to explore the author’s relationship with his/her own language, the essay focuses on the original ontological paradigm provided by Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Here, the lyric voice explicitly addresses the issues of poetic craft, while operating a decisive shift from the poetic tradition inaugurated by Petrarch. The analysis mainly touches on the “Dark Lady” section and highlights the importance of the verb “engraft” as a keyword in the author’s depiction of the complex relationship between art and life. While referring to the value of the act of writing as both form – a symbol for beauty – and creative practice, “engrafting” the text also shows its “dark side”, emblematically pointing to the original rift form the One. This accounts for Shakespeare’s wilful refusal to sign his collection: if writing is a pharmakon that poisons and heals at the same time, not writing his name in the book stands as the ultimate attempt to maintain his freedom, in an existential quest for the self necessarily leading to the disappearance of the authorial “voice”.