«Nel buio / in un bagliore latteo». A Reading of Eugenio De Signoribus’s paternali

Abstract

The article offers a reading of the sequence paternali from Eugenio De Signoribus’s Case perdute, situating it within in the Italian poetry in the Eighties. Paternali is interpreted as a dramatization of the generational fracture during Italy’s Years of Lead: the father embodies a fragile anachronistic authority, while the son oscillates between Oedipal revenge and resistant helplessness. The house, symbol of protection, is revealed as a prison; its final destruction opens the possibility of a new communal and civic dwelling, a theme that runs throughout the poet’s entire oeuvre.