Sperimentazioni linguistiche e meditazioni sulla follia nei romanzi di Domenico Dara

Experimental Language and Meditations on Madness in Domenico Dara’s Novels In the present article, I analyze Domenico Dara’s three novels, their complex architectures and the poetic mode deployed in the narratives examined. The southern region of Calabria – where Dara was born and raised and where his narrations take place – is at the core of the novels and is depicted in ways that are distant from stereotypical and conventional representations of Southern Italy. The analysis that I articulate in this text scrutinizes the elements of continuity and intertextuality in Dara’s novels, in particular the creation of an experimental language and the diffused presence of mental illness in Dara’s imaginary and narratives. Keywords: contemporary Italian literature, madness, subalternity of Southern Italy, Calabrese dialect.

Nel presente articolo analizzo la produzione romanzesca di Domenico Dara, scrittore del tutto originale che crea sofisticate architetture narrative attraverso una modalità profondamente poetica. Al centro delle sue narrazioni c’è la Calabria, sua regione natìa e luogo di ambientazione dei tre romanzi, raccontata in modi molto lontani da rappresentazioni convenzionali e stereotipate. L’analisi che qui propongo si sofferma sugli elementi di continuità e di intertestualità presenti nei romanzi, e in particolare sulla creazione da parte dell’autore di una lingua d’espressione del tutto personale e sulla centralità del tema della follia nel suo immaginario e nella sua scrittura. Experimental Language and Meditations on Madness in Domenico Dara’s Novels In the present article, I analyze Domenico Dara’s three novels, their complex architectures and the poetic mode deployed in the narratives examined. The southern region of Calabria – where Dara was born and raised and where his narrations take place – is at the core of the novels and is depicted in ways that are distant from stereotypical and conventional representations of Southern Italy. The analysis that I articulate in this text scrutinizes the elements of continuity and intertextuality in Dara’s novels, in particular the creation of an experimental language and the diffused presence of mental illness in Dara’s imaginary and narratives. Keywords: contemporary Italian literature, madness, subalternity of Southern Italy, Calabrese dialect.