The Black Brain Of Literature And The Memory Of The Future

Abstract

In this article I propose a comparative analysis of different types of prisons represented in engravings and literature, starting with Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who as of 1745 created the collection entitled Carceri d’invenzione. I analyze how Piranesi’s “black brain” (M. Yourcenar) projected, at the age of twenty-five, through his sixteen monumental engravings, a broad anticipatory vision of the violent prisons of the last century, from political jails to extermination gulags. Based on an analysis of the prison literature of the last century (e.g. Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov, Steinhardt etc.), I propose a generic typology of the violent universes described. Last but not least, I explain the anticipatory role of these art forms.