| Sumario: | The article presents scholar Franz Kafka's views on the book "Riflessi," by Aldo Palazzeschi, also known under the title "Allegoria Di Novembre." The novel is lost in its identity as an epistolary novel from the few decades of the twentieth century. So far, critical readings of the novel have failed to highlight what appears to be such an evident formal characteristic and, consequently, they have also left unexplored the potential interpretative implications this 'epistolary' feature may suggest. Palazzeschi's short novel with its two completely different, stylistically and structurally contrasting sections--the first and longer one consisting of thirty letters from the protagonist, Prince Valentino Kore, to his ex-lover, John Mare, and the second representing the comments of a vociferous crowd after the mysterious disappearance of Valentino--disorients its readers and problematizes any rigid categorization. The author suggest that Riflessi, with its two sections and its shifting narrative perspective, may actually represent a unique example and, thus, also a fitting "missing link" in the chronological development of the epistolary form in the Italian literary tradition.
|
|---|