«Nessun limite eccetto il cielo». Cervantes nell'opera di Heinrich Heine

This essay analyzes the role of Cervantes in the works of Heinrich Heine with particular reference to the issue of madness. Heine's poetics was inspired by Don Quixote, a fact he acknowledged explicity in the Einleitung (Introduction) written for a 1837 German translation of the novel, as well as in Reisebilder (1830-31). In his Einleitung, Heine describes the importance of Cervante's work, focusing on madness as a means of facing and understanding the world. Indeed, in the section of Reisebilder that regards his Italian journey and his visit to the city of Lucca (Die Stadt Lukka und Die Bäder von Lukka), Heine uses madness to interpret the world that sorrounds us. As with Cervantes, madness for Heine is an alternative to the rational; it too is a way to perceive the external world and to allow the individual's sense of destiny to develop.

Il presente contributo si prefigge di analizzare il ruolo che il il Don Chisciotte gioca nell’opera di Heinrich Heine concentrando l’attenzione sulla Einleitung del 1837 alla traduzione tedesca e sui Reisebilder (Impressioni di viaggio, 1826-1831), esaminando dell’influsso di Cervantes sull’opera heiniana solo alcuni aspetti come, ad esempio, quello della follia per fornirne una proposta di lettura.