Alessandro Baricco is an Italian author, pianist, journalist and music critic, among a wide range of many other talents. His novels have won great critical acclaim in Italy and France and are popular around the world. While generally considered among the postmodern writers, some critics have accused him of being a forerunner in a 1990s movement dubbed letteratura giovanile, that is juvenile literature that is simplistic, targets a young audience and is created for the sole purpose of making money. This criticism is unwarranted. Baricco is a multitalented author who pays strict attention to the quality of his work and weaves plotlines replete with a diverse set of genres, literary devices and symbolism, often inspired by other great writers and thinkers. However, literary critics have yet to acknowledge one of Baricco's strongest and most important influences: Homer, the ancient Greek bard and author of the epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Taking Baricco's work in a Homeric context can aid in viewing it as valid and important work, worthy of scholarly discussion and interpretation, rather than, as some critics accuse, a one-dimensional story meant only for children. This paper will argue that Baricco's work is Homeric and, in fact, Baricco's implementation of many of Homer's devices, such as his understanding of his audience and use rhythmic language and stereotyped story patterns, has aided Baricco's great success and popularity.
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University of Connecticut
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Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer /
Alessandro Baricco: Omero Modern
Whitney Losapio
University of Connecticut - Storrs, whitney.losapio@gmail.com
Follow this and additional works at: h4ps://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses
Part of the Italian Literature Commons
Recommended Citation
Losapio, Whitney, "Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer / Alessandro Baricco: Omero Modern" (2010). Honors Scholar eses. 117.
h4ps://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/117
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 1
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer
Whitney Losapio
April 30, 2010
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 2
Preface
Alessandro Baricco, born in Turin in 1958, began his career as a philosopher, piano
player and musicological critic. His first publication, Il Genio in Fuga (1988), is a critical essay
on the work of Goachino Rossini and L'anima di Hegel e le mucche del Wisconsin (1992)
explores the relationship between music and modernity. Baricco was also employed in the world
of journalism as a musical critic for La Repubblica, as a columnist for La Stampa and in the
world of television as a talk show host on Rai Tre before entering the world of literature. His
first novel, Castelli di Rabbia (in English, Lands of Glass) was published in 1991. He enjoyed
great success in the following years, topping Italian and French bestseller lists with the novels
Oceano Mare (1993) and Seta (1996). Around this time he also co-founded Scuola Holden, a
creative writing school in Turin named after J.D. Salinger's character Holden Caulfield from
Catcher in the Rye. In addition, Baricco's career expanded into the fields of film and theater.
His theatrical monologue, Novecento (1993) became a film under the supervision of famed
director Giuseppe Tornatore. Baricco has also read and performed parts of Omero, Iliade, his
creative rewriting of Homer's classic, the Iliad, in prose, on stages across Italy. Baricco has
continued to write novels, collections of short writings and essays, and has pursued other
opportunities on stage and in the film and music industries. He has won the Prix Médicis
Étranger in France and the Selezione Campiello, Viareggio and Palazzo al Bosco prizes in Italy.
His talent spans many mediums, winning praise and recognition from around the world.1
1 For biographical and bibliographical information about Alessandro Baricco, consult:
<www.oceanomare.com/bibliografia.htm>.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 3
Introduction
Il successo di pubblico di Alessandro Baricco, dimostrato dalle copie
vendute dei suoi romanzi e dal numero di edizioni e ristampe, è un
fenomeno sotto gli occhi di tutti. Ma qual è la ragione di un tale
successo?2
Critics generally agree that, "[t]here are reasons why Baricco is one of the few Italian
contemporary authors who has been able to emerge from under the long shadows cast by Italo
Calvino and Umberto Eco, and impose himself to the attention of both the reading public and
literary scholars".3 His success has been attributed to various facets of his unique writing style,
his diverse body of work and his wide range of influences. However, Baricco's popularity has
also been linked in a negative way to a desire mass-produce his books in order to make a lot of
money. In fact, Umberto Eco credits himself with the movement in Italy beginning in 1963 that
promoted the "consenso = disvalore" equation.4 This attitude toward popular literature still
exists in Italy today and has caused some critics to go as far as to deem Baricco's work to be part
of a juvenile literature movement, described thus: "Tuttavia, l'avvenimento letterario degli anni
'90 è indubbiamente l'arrivo massiccio di autori esordienti…che chiameremo «giovani narratori»
in riferimento però più all'esperienza narrativa che all'età anagrafica".5 This brand of letteratura
giovanile, defined as literature written by youth for youth, with a young protagonist as a first
person narrator, a setting in present day, and often addressing the themes of "musica, sesso,
droga, solitudine, difficoltà relazioni con la famiglia", sells well in the consumer culture of
2 Bellavia, Elisa. "La Lingua Di Alessandro Baricco." Otto/Novecento 25.1 (2001): 135.
3 Ferme, Valerio. "Travel and Repetition in the Work of Alessandro Baricco: Reconfiguring the Real through the
Myth of the 'Eternal' (?) Return." Italian Culture 18.1 (2000): 49.
4 Eco, Umberto. Postille a Il Nome Della Rosa. Milano: Bompiani 1984.
5 Contarini, Silvia. "Corrente e Controcorrente." Narrativa 12 (1997): 27.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 4
modern day.6 Therein lies the criticism: a "juvenile book" is "[u]n «libro basso»…moderno,
leggibile, e pure divertente perché abbassamento significa sguardo ludico, parodico, leggero" and
is written merely to sell and make lots of money, with no regard to the things that constitute good
writing and true literature.7
Baricco, come la maggior parte dei giovani narratori di cui si è parlato, propone ciò che
piace, che non disturba, che è già intergrato alla cultura…Non c'è violenza contro la
norma, non c'è dissenso. C'è futilità , effimero, sincretismo, superficialità , conformismo,
adeguamento…Il problema dei giovani narratori e di Baricco è proprio questo: la loro
letteratura, fatta per «restituire tutto», per «contenere il mondo», non serve a conoscerlo.8
Another critic agrees that a characteristic of Baricco's work is, "l'aderenza al linguaggio
colloquiale, ossia l'italiano parlato nelle conversazioni quotidiane".9 Baricco's use of informal,
colloquial language can be seen as an attempt to recreate the world of the common day and to
create realistic characters. However, in this case, critics believe it is an unsophisticated use of
language that creates a low form of literature.
However, this criticism does not seem appropriate. While some of Baricco's protagonists
are children 10, his works do no seem to be geared toward a young audience. The themes of
Baricco's novels are not those of struggling youth in today's world, described above. The
struggles of his characters are often unrealistic and almost mythical or otherworldly, rather than a
true hard-knock life story. In addition, Baricco's use of colloquial language does not make his
works "bassi", but rather helps to help define the personalities and backgrounds of some of his
characters. For example, "in Oceano Mare è Ann Devarià [che] non rispetta…i dettami della
grammatica italiana", such as her use of the indicative form of a verb where the subjunctive form
6 Ibid, 30.
7 Ibid, 36.
8 Ibid, 45-46.
9 Bellavia, Elisa. "La Lingua Di Alessandro Baricco." Otto/Novecento 25.1 (2001): 137.
10 Baricco, Alessandro Castelli di Rabbia. Milano: Rizzoli 1991; Oceano Mare. Milano: BUR La Scala 1993; City.
Milano: Rizzoli 1999.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 5
is grammatically correct, a common colloquialism.11 Baricco's critical and scholarly interests in
literature and music make it unlikely that he would write something that lacked depth and
culture. In addition, his writing is replete with complex literary and rhetorical devices, for
example:
…diversi stili e generi letterari, figure retoriche, registri linguistici; si passa dal dialogo
allo stile libero indiretto, dal monologo interiore al racconto, dal saggio alla descrizione,
all'epistola, alla cronaca, alla massima morale, alla poesia, al frammento. La lingua
alterna lirismi, conversazioni, prose raffinate forme parlate talvolta anche volgari. [C'è]
la ripresa di un tema in formato ridotto o in metafora, ma spiccano l'uso di ossimori, le
allitterazioni, i superlativi, il climax, il simbolismo, una punteggiatura elaborata e
diversificata…12
This kind of mastery of language shows clearly that Baricco is not abasing literature or writing
works that are overly simplistic. Baricco is neither a narratore giovanile in his actual age (he is
presently 51 years old), nor is the quality or complexity of his work juvenile.
While Baricco's novels are not a part of the letteratura giovanile movement of the 1990s,
it is more accurate to say that he was influenced by the post-modernist literature, dominant in
Italy in the 1980s. Postmodern literature is described by Eco in his postscript to Il Nome Della
Rosa as something that, "…richiede, per essere compreso, non la negazione del già detto, ma il
suo ripensamento ironico".13 It is an attempt to use an established plot, such as those in the epic
tales of Homer, and retell the story with an ironic twist. Often postmodernist literature is
created, "nell'ideologia della narrazione la realtà non esiste, esiste la narrazione…e si profila
l'antitesi tra narratore e romanziere: il romanziere analizza, scompone, divide; il narratore fa
prevalere l'immagine sull'idea".14 For example, Baricco's novels attempt to avoid the label
"novel" and remain simply stories, putting an emphasis, then, on the narrator and the fact that a
11 Bellavia, Elisa. "La Lingua Di Alessandro Baricco." Otto/Novecento 25.1 (2001): 138.
12 Contarini, Silvia. "Corrente e Controcorrente." Narrativa 12 (1997): 42.
13 Eco, Umberto. Postille a Il Nome Della Rosa. Milano: Bompiani 1984.
14 Contarini, Silvia. "Corrente e Controcorrente." Narrativa 12 (1997): 40.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 6
story must be told. Castelli di Rabbia is described as a "pullulare di storie" and Seta "non è un
romanzo. E neppure un racconto… è una storia".15 Within his works Baricco also emphasizes
the importance of the narrator, or teller of the story. In particular, in Oceano Mare, the narrator
himself is a character that witnessed the story that unfolds firsthand.16
Another major characteristic of postmodernist literature is that, while it is, "material che
esibisce delle proprie leggi naturali," it also "porta con sé il ricordo della cultura di cui è carica
(l'eco dell'intertestualità )".17 True to postmodernist form, Baricco also uses both traditional and
experimental formats and his novels are often characterized by intertextuality, that is, "i testi
rinviano continuamente ad altri testi, si intersecano e compongono in sistemi di scatole cinesi;
paratesto, ipertesto e metatesto partecipano a una composizione letteraria…".18 The same critic
that categorizes Baricco as a narratore giovanile calls his use of intertextuality a "joke" and a
"spectacle", essentially childish play.19 However, this is not the case. Baricco's appreciation for
his influences and use of names, images and styles taken from admired authors and employed in
his own work as symbols and allusions shows literary competency and maturity and a distinctly
postmodernist style.
Baricco's influences are vast and he employs the ideas of others, often with the addition
of his own twist, on many levels in his work. Baricco often uses an intertwining "web" of
stories, "in itself a common literary practice (Gadda's infinite "maglia", the labyrinth of Calvino
or Eco), but in Baricco it is induced by a determined manifestation of time: the virtual "infinity"
15 Baricco, Alessandro. Castelli di Rabbia. Milano: Rizzoli 1991; Seta. Milano: BUR La Scala 1996.
16 Baricco, Alessandro. Novecento. Milano: Feltrini 1994; Oceano Mare. Milano: BUR La Scala 1993.
17 Eco, Umberto. Postille a Il Nome Della Rosa. Milano: Bompiani 1984.
18 Contarini, Silvia. "Corrente e Controcorrente." Narrativa 12 (1997): 41.
19 Ibid.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 7
of the narration makes his narrative quite extra-ordinary".20 Thus, Baricco is clearly influenced
by the style of many postmodernist writers, but implements ideas such as "the web" in a way that
is distinctly his own. The themes of the purity of the artist and the inadequacy of verbal
language in the artist's expression are extremely similar to themes found in Nietzche, Pirandello
and Michelstaeder.21 Oceano Mare pays tribute to Baricco's influences Melville and Conrad:
Bartleboom the professor shares characteristics in common with Melville's Bartleby the
scrivener, the imagery of the storm and being at sea in the second chapter of Oceano Mare
reflects similar imagery in Melville's Moby Dick, the Almayer Inn is named after the protagonist
in Conrad's Almayer's Folley: A Story of an Easter River, and Adams return from seeing the
brutality of desperate men lost at sea reflects Marlow's glimpse into the brutality of colonialism
on the Congo River in Conrad's Heart of Darkness .22
However, literary critics have yet to acknowledge one of Baricco's strongest and most
important influences: Homer, the ancient Greek bard from the sixth century BCE23 and author of
the epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. In fact, the only connection made to date is the brief
observation that Hélène, Hervé Joncour's wife in Baricco's Seta and Penelope, Odysseus's wife
in the Odyssey play a similar role of the faithful wife left at home while the husband journey's
abroad.24 Taking Baricco's work in a Homeric context can aid in viewing it in a scholarly
context, rather than dismissing it as a simplistic story meant only for children, as some critics
20 Lanslots, Inge. "Alessandro Baricco's Infinite Tales." Spunti e Ricerche: Rivista d'Italianistica 14 (1999): 55.
21 Bini, Daniela. "La Voce Del Mare: Da Oceano Mare Di Baricco a La Leggenda Del Pianista Sull'Oceano Di
Tornatore." Italica 79.1 (2002): 44-61.
22 Fattori, Ivana Van Lieshout. "Personaggi Simbolo in Oceano Mare Di Alessandro Baricco." '...E c'è Di Mezzo Il
Mare': Lingua, Letteratura e Civiltà Marina, II. Ed. Bart Van den Bossche, Michel Bastiaensen, and
Corinna Salvadori Lonergan. Florence, Italy: Cesati, 2002. 467-472.
Lazzarin, Stefano. "Bartleby, Barnabooth, Bartlebooth, Bartleboom: Baricco e Il Grande Oceano Delle Storie."
Narrativa 16 (1999): 143-65.
23 Foley, John. "'Reading' Homer through Oral Tradition." College Literature 34.2 (2007): 4.
24 Senardi, Fulvio. "Alessandro Baricco, Ovvero...Che Storia Mi Racconti?" Problemi: Periodico Quadrimestrale di
Cultura 112 (1998): 295.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 8
assert. This paper will argue that Baricco's work is Homeric and, in fact, Baricco's
implementation of many of Homer's devices, such as his understanding of his audience and use
rhythmic language and stereotyped story patterns, has aided Baricco's great success and
popularity. Baricco's use of Homeric literary devices in a modern way has made his work
extremely accessible to his audience.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 9
A Modern Homer
…credo che ricevere un testo [come l'Iliade], che viene da così lontano,
significhi sopra ogni cosa cantarlo con la musica che è nostra.25
Before proceeding, it would be useful to understand that this paper will refer to Homer as
if he were one man, with the understanding that there was not a single person nor multiple
contributors behind the existing texts of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but rather a long line of
performers existing from the conception of the epics in the sixth century BCE to the first
complete written versions in the tenth century CE that passed the stories on orally.26 Thus
"Homer" does not refer to a "flesh-and-blood individual…because he simply never existed as
such," but rather, "«Homer» names the epic tradition as an ongoing whole".27
The most clear and obvious connection between Baricco and Homer is Baricco's attempt
to actually be a modern Homer in his recreation of Homer's Iliad in his novel, Omero, Iliade.
His novel describes the Trojan War through the first person accounts of twenty-one different
Homeric characters, eliminating the role of the narrator, Homer himself, in an attempt to create
for Baricco his own, modern Homeric narrative persona. In his preface to the text, Baricco
reveals his admiration for the poet and the epic itself and his desire to make the ancient epic
accessible to modern audiences. Before he even began writing the text, he considered simply
performing the Iliad aloud, as Homer would have done, and was granted the opportunity to do so
by the Romaeuropa Festival, the Torino Settembre Musica and Musica per Roma.28
25 Baricco, Alessandro. Omero, Iliade (2004). Milan: Feltrinelli 2008, 9 (preface).
26 Foley, John. "'Reading' Homer through Oral Tradition." College Literature 34.2 (2007): 4.
27 Ibid, 7.
28 Baricco, Alessandro. Omero, Iliade (2004). Milan: Feltrinelli 2008, 7.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 10
His first ideas on the project were these: "Tempo fa ho pensato che sarebbe stato bello
leggere in pubblico, per ore, tutta l'Iliade…[ma] mi subito parso chiaro che, in realtà , così
com'era, il testo era illeggibile: ci sarebbero volute una quarantina di ore e un pubblico davvero
molto paziente".29 Thus Baricco decided to shorten and refashion the text in a way that would
preserve the plot and major themes, but would make the epic easily appreciated by a modern
audience. In addition to removing certain scenes to suit the patience of a modern audience,
Baricco also,
h[a] tagliato tutte le apparizioni degli dei…Sono forse le parti più estranee alla sensibilitÃ
moderna, e sovente spezzano la narrazione, disperdendo una velocità che, invece,
avrebbe dell'eccezionale…Se quindi si tolgono gli dei da quel testo, quel che resto non è
tanto un mondo orfano e inspiegabile, quanto un'umanissima storia in cui gli uomini
vivono il proprio destino come potrebbero leggere un linguaggio cifrato di cui
conoscono, quasi integralmente, il codice. In definitiva: togliere gli dei dall'Iliade non è
probabilmente un buon sistema per comprendere la civiltà omerica: ma mi sembra un
ottimo sistema per recuperare quella storia riportandola nell'orbita delle narrazioni a noi
contemporanee.30
As Baricco describes, the removal of the ancient Greek gods and goddesses, whom
contemporary people can relate very little to, makes the story more modern. In addition the
absence of these archaic figures changes the plotline very little, but rather enhances the drive
behind it, making it more suited to a less patient audience.
Baricco also changes some other aspects of Homer's Iliad to make this version of the
epic poem distinctly his own. He made careful alterations in Homer's style of writing, replacing
archaic language with more modern, and thus more easily understandable, terms from "un
italiano vivo".31 His goal was to, "eliminare tutti gli spigoli arcaici che allontanano dal cuore
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid, 8.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 11
delle cose".32 Homer's Iliad, which begins with Achilles rage against Agamemnon, finishes in
Book XXIV with the end of the cycle of Achilles wrath and the return of Hektor's body to
Priam. Baricco thought another thing that would make Omero, Iliade more pleasing to a modern
audience would be to add closure to the story of the Trojan War, rather than with the closure
provided by Homer on Achilles's rage. Baricco borrows a scene from Homer's Odyssey where
the bard, Demodocus, recounts the fall of Troy in order to provide this closure. Baricco suits his
version of the epic to his audience, just as Homer's Iliad was suited to his own. According to
Eco, it is typical for a writer to suit his work to his audience:
C'è un scrittore che scrive solo per i posteri? No, neppure se lo afferma, perché, siccome
non è Nortradamus, non può che configurarsi i posteri sul modello di ciò che sa dei
contemporanei...[Crea] il testo...che cerca di andare incontro ai desideri dei lettori tali
quali li si trova già per la strada...33
Baricco does just this in his refashioning of Homer's Iliad and it is also apparent in his other
works that, "Baricco is interested most of all in upholding the rights of the reader. It is for the
reader that literature exists, non as a[n]…author-centered enterprise".34 In the case of Omero,
Iliade, it is clear that Baricco took on Homer's role and successfully marketed an ancient epic
both in live readings in 2004 to modern audiences of over ten thousand and in his text version,
translated into many languages and available all around the world.35
32 Ibid.
33 Eco, Umberto. Postille a Il Nome Della Rosa. Milano: Bompiani 1984.
34 Tarantino, Elisabetta. "Sailing Off on the Adel: Alessandro Baricco's Metaliterary Trilogy (Part 2)." Romance
Studies 25.4 (2007): 325.
35 Baricco, Alessandro. Omero, Iliade (2004). Milan: Feltrinelli 2008, 10.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 12
Musicology and Oral Tradition
For with all peoples upon the earth singers are entitled
to be cherished and to their share of respect, since the Muse has taught them
her own way, and since she loves all the company of singers.36
It is crucial to understand that Homer belongs to a long-standing oral tradition. "In two
famous articles published in 1930 and 1932, [Milman Parry] made the case for Homeric diction
as the product of composition in performance, of a long tradition of oral bards who must have
sung (not written) ancient Greek epics".37 Because Baricco is a musician and musicologist and
Homer a singer, their works contain strong lyrical and musical elements. In fact, Baricco's
performance of his own version of Homer's Iliad makes Baricco a "singer" of epic tales himself.
Through Parry's research on oral tradition, it has been discovered that Homer used the repetition
of certain formulas in order to make story telling easier for him and certain parts of the story
more recognizable to the audience. He did this on three different levels within the epics:
"metrically defined parts of lines…«typical scenes» and «story patterns»".38
First, while singing an epic tale, Homer used certain combinations of words, such as
"And then spoke to him/her" combined with epithet names like "long-suffering divine
Odysseus", "swift-footed Achilles" or "goddess grey-eyed Athena" in order to make his lines fit
seamlessly into the dactylic hexameter rhythm of the line (See fig. 1).39 Another reason Homer
uses these noun-epithets, even when they seem out of place (for example, "Achilles is called
«swift-footed» when running, standing or lying down") is that he is "naming a character by
citing a single memorable quality, a tell-tale detail, that refers not to that character's immediate
36 Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. New York: Harper Perennial 2007, 8.479-81)
37 Foley, John. "'Reading' Homer through Oral Tradition." College Literature 34.2 (2007): 3.
38 Ibid, 13.
39 Ibid, 10.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 13
situational identity at any particular point in the story but to his or her larger identity across the
epic" in order to give a brief reminder to the audience of who that character is and what his or
her main qualities are.40
Another level of the epic that Homer uses repetition and rhythmical patterns is setting a
scene. Every Feast scene must include "a host and guest(s), the seating of the guests(s), several
core actions associated with feasting, the satisfaction of the guest(s), and some kind of
consequent mediation of a pre-existing problem".41 Interestingly, Homer repeats verbatim the
exact five-line description of the feast six times in the Odyssey . 42 While the Feast is a
stereotyped scene in the Odyssey, the Lament is a stereotyped scene in the Iliad. The Lament
occurs when a woman mourns the death of a fallen hero and occurs four times in the Iliad,
always in a three-part pattern.43 Finally, the largest scale on which Homer repeats himself using
an established and recognizable structure is in the story-pattern. For Homer, it is the Return
structure that underlies the major plotline of the Odyssey and the minor plotline of Agamemnon-
Clytaemnestra in the Iliad. Additionally, a third partially recovered epic from Homer entitled
Nostoi (Returns) completes the "now-lost Epic Cycle about the Trojan War and its aftermath"
and makes it clear that the Return story-pattern was a major component in all of Homer's work.44
Homer uses these typical scenes and story patterns, "not merely [as] a structural blueprint for
constructing epic narrative, but an opportunity to situate individualized events and moments
40 Ibid, 14-15.
41 Ibid, 11.
42 "A maidservant brought water for them and poured it from a splendid
and golden pitcher, holding it above a water basin
for them to wash, and she pulled a polished table before them.
A grave housekeeper brought in the bread and served it to them,
Adding many good things to it, generous with her provisions" (Ibid, 11)
43 Ibid, 11.
44 Ibid, 12-13.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 14
within a traditionally reverberative frame".45 That is, Homer used familiar and even stereotyped
scenes and story-patterns so that the audience could begin listening at any time immediately
recognize the flow and rhythm of the scene or story.
While Baricco is not an ancient Greek bard, his novels use repetition to achieve a similar
musicality and rhythm to that found in Homer's works. In addition, both authors use this
technique to make the reading or performance of their literature accessible to their audience. In
fact, religious anthropologist Mircea Eliade has noted that in stories and mythology of archaic
societies, "…repetition and cyclical patterns are the means by which many societies attempted to
construct and give meaning to their world".46 Thus repetition is an established practice that has
been noted in many cultures as a technique to help audiences make connections between the
story and the world around them in a way that helps them better understand and in a way
enriches the story as well as their daily lives.
In Baricco's early non-fictional work, his two essays on musicology, he verbalizes the
necessity of repetition in music, mirroring Eliade's explanation for repetition in both oral story-
telling and written literature. In L'anima di Hegel e le mucche del Wisconsin, Baricco reveals
that he, "abhors the chaos and disorder of a work of art in which there exist no recognizable
formal and thematic elements to guide the audience's reception".47 Thus there is nothing
familiar that the audience can connect to or use as a recognizable launching point from which to
enjoy the piece of music. In the essay, Baricco praises "…Puccini's incorporation of popular
tunes in his operas…as a positive innovation, bordering sometimes on kitsch, but necessary to
45 Ibid, 16.
46 Ferme, Valerio. "Travel and Repetition in the Work of Alessandro Baricco: Reconfiguring the Real through the
Myth of the 'Eternal' (?) Return." Italian Culture 18.1 (2000): 50.
47 Ibid, 54.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 15
revitalize music's connection to the real world".48 Puccini's use of well-known themes in his
music as a way to connect to his audience and build a work of art using an established launching
point is just like Homer's incorporation of the repetitious and familiar Feast or Lament
sequences. Repetition is necessary in music just as it is in story-telling: "Tones that provide
meaning, and repetitions that bring the audience back to the original theme, are the symbolic
equivalents of those myths that lead the audience beyond the denotative function of the story into
a charged time outside of history that gives meaning to one's limited and chaotic everyday
reality".49
While Baricco makes clear the necessity of repetition in the works of others, he very
clearly puts his theory into practice in his own works. This use of recurring and interwoven
phrases, images and storylines gives Baricco's fictional work an extremely musical quality: "Che
l'interesse per la musica sia presente anche nell'opera narrativa di Baricco è evidente nella
ricerca di un ritmo, nella scelta precisa dei suoni, nel frequente slittamento della prosa in
poesia".50 Like Homer, he sometimes repeats single words that are image evoking. For
example, "In Oceano Mare for example the title itself pauses, defers the episodes in an almost
obsessive way, imitating in its turn the waves of the sea…This narrative technique is used
parallel to the undulation of what is narrated, meaning the journeys, the departures and returns, in
the four volumes."51 Repetition of words and of entire scenes is also evident in Baricco's other
fictional works:
48 Ibid, 55.
49 Ibid, 55-56.
50 Bini, Daniela. "La Voce Del Mare: Da Oceano Mare Di Baricco a La Leggenda Del Pianista Sull'Oceano Di
Tornatore." Italica 79.1 (2002): 44.
51 Lanslots, Inge. "Alessandro Baricco's Infinite Tales." Spunti e Ricerche: Rivista d'Italianistica 14 (1999): 53.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 16
…Baricco's narrative [is] postmodern in an eclectic way…his narrative is non-linear, that
is complex, obeying musical principles. His repetitious way of writing, evident at various
levels, is striking. First of all there is the repetition of sentences, fragments of texts
which recur on several occasions, like the refrain in a song, like "oh yes" in Novecento…
[S]ometimes the change is almost imperceptible, as in the description of the route to
Japan in Seta… 52
In fact, Baricco's description of Hervé Joncour's journey to Japan remains almost completely
unchanged throughout the novel, in much the same way that Homer's Feast sequences repeat the
same exact set of five lines every time a Feast takes place in the Odyssey.53 Baricco uses the
same sequence, making small changes to the adjectives used to describe the border crossing, the
name the locals use to call Lake Bajkal and the time in the port of Sabirk.54
A similar repetition occurs in the second chapter of Oceano Mare, "Il ventre del mare" in
Savigny's account of the horrors that occurred on the raft between the survivors of the Alliance.
Over the course of ten pages he lists and describes one thing after another that he remembers
from his terrifying experience. Baricco builds on "La prima cosa è il mio nome…", repeating it
and expanding it each time in a rhythmic cycle of repetition that culminates in the final piece of
Savigny's story and the introduction of his connection with Thomas: "La prima cosa è il mio
nome, la seconda quegli occhi, la terza un pensiero, la quarta la notte che viene, la quinta quei
corpi straziati, la sesta è fame, la settima orrore, l'ottava i fantasmi della follia, la nona è carne e
la decima è un uomo che mi guarda e non mi uccide".55 One critic says of this section,
"[Baricco] si serve una tecnica retorica da cantata, basata sulla ripetizione, creando un'onda
sonora che acquista vieppiù di forza ad ogni ripetizione".56 Baricco is using repetition here to
52 Ibid.
53 Baricco, Alessandro. Seta. Milano: BUR La Scala 1996. 22, 31, 50, 67.
54 Ferme, Valerio. "Travel and Repetition in the Work of Alessandro Baricco: Reconfiguring the Real through the
Myth of the 'Eternal' (?) Return." Italian Culture 18.1 (2000): 64.
55 Baricco, Alessandro. Oceano Mare. Milano: BUR La Scala 1993, 110.
56 Bini, Daniela. "La Voce Del Mare: Da Oceano Mare Di Baricco a La Leggenda Del Pianista Sull'Oceano Di
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 17
create a rhythmic "wave" that gathers momentum and strikes the reader with more force as each
repetition accumulates more that is attached to it. Thus Baricco, like Homer, repeats single
words, lines and even large portions of text throughout his works. The repetition functions in a
similar way to situate the reader and establish connections to familiar scenes and phrases as each
novel progresses. Like the wave gathering momentum, each image that is repeated carries more
meaning each time it appears.
The likening of the rhythms found in both Homer's and Baricco's works to that of a wave
is no coincidence; the ocean, its musical or rhythmic quality in particular, is a central theme in
the works of both men. In fact, "Chi legge con attenzione i libri di Alessandro Baricco non può
negare che il mare e la musica sono due tematiche care allo scrittore".57 In addition, scholars,
critics and "[p]oets have always associated the poems maritime content [of the Odyssey] with the
rolling effect of its broad-sweeping hexameter verse".58 Both Baricco and Homer are fascinated
with capturing the sound and feeling of the ocean in the rhythm of their writing. For them, "[la]
sussurrata dal mare illustra l'importanza del suono, del ritmo del mare; l'acqua si fa musica".59
The ocean's musical qualities become in themselves music and in imitating the ocean both
Homer and Baricco make music within their works.
Tornatore." Italica 79.1 (2002): 48.
57 Van den Bogaert, Annelies. "Alessandro Baricco: Fra Novecento e Il Mare c'è Di Mezzo La Musica." '...E c'è Di
Mezzo Il Mare': Lingua, Letteratura e Civiltà Marina, II. Ed. Bart Van den Bossche, Michel Bastiaensen,
and Corinna Salvadori Lonergan. Florence, Italy: Cesati, 2002. 451.
58 Hall, Edith. The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer's Odyssey. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press 2008, 14.
59 Van den Bogaert, Annelies. "Alessandro Baricco: Fra Novecento e Il Mare c'è Di Mezzo La Musica." '...E c'è Di
Mezzo Il Mare': Lingua, Letteratura e Civiltà Marina, II. Ed. Bart Van den Bossche, Michel Bastiaensen,
and Corinna Salvadori Lonergan. Florence, Italy: Cesati, 2002. 458.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 18
The Return Story-Pattern
When the hero-quest has been accomplished, through penetration to the
source, or through the grace of some male or female, human or animal,
personification, the adventurer still must return with his life-transmuting
trophy.60
While Baricco utilizes story-telling tools from ancient times, his work is also informed by
a cultural and historical understanding of his present day audience and of modernity. The
Western world was guided for centuries by the ideas of, "Linearism and the progressivistic
approach to the History of the world that was brought about by Illuminism and seventeenth-
century thought".61 The idea that history was only moving in one positive direction affected
science, philosophy, literature and all other modes of thought and expression up until the fall of
progressivism in the early 20th century. "[T]hrough the horror of the two World Wars", it was
difficult for people to believe that the brutality of the violence and the large death toll were a
positive step for Europe and humanity, and there was a philosophical and literary move to
"revalue the 'myth of cyclical periodicity [and] the myth of the eternal return'".62 Thus, Baricco
returns to a story-pattern that is ancient, but that speaks powerfully to a modern audience.
In the last section, Homer's adherence to a Return story-pattern was discussed. Baricco
too uses a similar pattern in many of his works and in general terms the two authors can be
connected by their similar implementation of a story-pattern. However, instead of comparing the
two authors directly, which has hardly been done, it would be useful to use the vessel of Joseph
Campbell's "monomyth" because scholars have already drawn comparisons between the
"monomyth" and works from both Baricco and Homer. In particular, it would be useful to
60 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Princeton University Press 1973.
61 Ferme, Valerio. "Travel and Repetition in the Work of Alessandro Baricco: Reconfiguring the Real through the
Myth of the 'Eternal' (?) Return." Italian Culture 18.1 (2000): 51.
62 Ibid.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 19
compare Homer's Odyssey and Baricco's Oceano Mare to Joseph Campbell's work because they
best demonstrate this Return structure. First it would be helpful to understand Joseph
Campbell's theory of the "monomyth". The "monomyth" is the structure that Campbell believes
lies at the center of most other myths, to discuss the similarities in structure. Campbell defines
the "monomyth" in terms of a "hero" who "ventures forth from the world of common day into a
region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are encountered there and a decisive victory is
won". 63
This story-pattern is evident in the Odyssey when Odysseus leaves the shores of Troy for
the strange waters and lands of the Aegean, meeting mythical beasts and alluring goddesses, and
achieving victory upon his escape from the captivity of Calypso and his return home. The
Almayer Inn in Oceano Mare represents a supernatural place in which all of the characters
venture forth into. It is a liminal place, as Elisewin explains to Padre Pluche: "Questa è la riva
del mare, Padre Pluche. Né terra né mare. È un luogo che non esiste".64 It is described within
the text paradoxically as dangerous, yet peaceful.65 The decisive victory is won in Oceano Mare
not by one particular hero, but by most of characters: "the survivors from the Inn…will, in
different ways end up by being saved or at least by being at peace with the world".66
Campbell gets more specific in his definition of the "monomyth", however, saying that a
hero must go through a cyclical journey of separation, initiation and return, with more complex
steps between these three major phases. 67 Odysseus's journey is also structured in the same way.
63 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Princeton University Press 1973, p. 30.
64 Baricco, Alessandro. Oceano Mare. Milano: BUR La Scala 1993, 92.
65 Ibid, 153.
66 Tarantino, Elisabetta. "Sailing Off on the Adel: Alessandro Baricco's Metaliterary Trilogy (Part 2)." Romance
Studies 25.4 (2007): 323-37.
67 See Appendix, Fig. 2.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 20
He is first separated from home when he leaves Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War, however this
does not actually take place in the Odyssey . Victorious after his wooden horse scheme,
Odysseus then departs from the safety of the shores of Troy and, having angered Poseidon, is
blown completely off course and into unknown lands by a storm.68 This is his "call to
adventure".69 Odysseus is initiated to the journey ahead of him, filled with many trials, when he
first meets the Lotus Eaters, who want him to stay in their land, "feeding on lotus, and forget the
way home".70 Campbell describes the "initiation" step as a "form of self-annihilation"71 , which
is what happens to Odysseus. Here he is launched into a world of strange fantasy with the
potent, magical lotus fruits and has encountered his first obstacle on his way back to Ithaca,
foreshadowing the ten-year struggle in which he will encounter nothing but obstacles.
He is also offered the divine help of Athena, and though she does not give him physical
amulets for protection, she gives him divine protection and care when she is able.72 Odysseus
and his men encounter many obstacles and all of Odysseus's men are lost to the perils of the
journey, but he is still able to return home to Ithaca in the end as both a healthy and wealthy man
and reclaim his wife and his throne. Campbell also says that at the point of the hero's return, "the
hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on the fellow
man". 73 Though Odysseus brings the tangible gift of a ship full of expensive gifts to Ithaca from
the Phaiakians, it is not wealth that will end the turmoil in Ithaca. 74 It is only Odysseus that can
claim the power that is rightfully his as king, rid his home of the parasitic suitors, return to his
68 Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. New York: Harper Perennial 2007, p. 139.
69 See Appendix, Fig. 2.
70 Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. New York: Harper Perennial 2007, p. 139.
71 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Princeton University Press 1973, p. 91.
72 See Appendix, Fig.2: "Helpers" as a step in Campbell's monomyth theory.
73 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Princeton University Press 1973, p. 30.
74 Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. New York: Harper Perennial 2007, p. 198.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 21
wife and bring order and prosperity back to Ithaca. 75 Thus, it is not necessarily a physical boon
that is required, but instead the boon is the hero him/herself.
Oceano Mare follows this story-pattern in two ways: in the structure of the novel itself
and in some of the story lines of the characters. Structurally, the novel begins with a departure
from reality into the mythical realm of the Almayer Inn. The reader departs from a comfortable
reality into this strange world in the libro primo, in which all of the characters are introduced and
convene at the Almayer Inn in order to fix their wide array of problems. Then the reader is
initiated in the libro secondo: "Il ventre del mare", where the book ventures forth into the
dangerous realm of the sea where the laws of the land have no bearing. In the libro terzo, "I
canti del ritorno", and obviously allusion by Baricco to the pattern of the story, the reader returns
to the Almayer Inn and sees that the ocean, in addition to its horrific destructive properties from
the libro secondo, also has boons to bestow upon the characters and helps them resolve their
story lines. In a way, the sea is the protagonist in this sense.
However, the characters also experience the events similar to those delineated by
Campbell's "monomyth" theory and Elisewin is the character "who most directly enacts
Campbell's paradigm".76 She "suffers from a pathologically enhanced sensitivity which makes it
impossible for her to participate in life" and she can only be cured by departing from her home in
Carewell and going to the sea. At the Almayer Inn, she loses her innocence in a night of passion
with Thomas and is initiated by an "annihilation" of her old self. Elisewin is cured and returns
from the Almayer to a new home with Langlais, upon whom she can bestow the boons of the
stories that she has learned from Thomas. Other characters also receive the seemingly divine and
75 Ibid, p. 253-359.
76 Tarantino, Elisabetta. "Sailing Off on the Adel: Alessandro Baricco's Metaliterary Trilogy (Part 2)." Romance
Studies 25.4 (2007): 325.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 22
certainly supernatural aid from the four children who run the Almayer Inn: Dood, Ditz, Dol and
Dira. Another critic notes that "in Baricco, the knowledge granted to the children is never
accessible to the adults",77 and it is common that they are godlike figures that can control
otherworldly facets of life and help the protagonists.
Using Campbell's "monomyth" structure creates a strong connection between Homer's
and Baricco's work and return journeys evident in each. While, above, the connection has been
strongly drawn between Homer's Odyssey and Baricco's Oceano Mare, "[i]ndeed, it is possible
to say that each and every one of Baricco's fictional works – from Castelli di Rabbia to Oceano
Mare, from the monologue Novecento to…Seta, and…City – revolves around cyclical motifs and
the idea of the return…".78 The return structure in Baricco's work demonstrates that his novels
contain a universal structure and common themes that transcend centuries of time and gaps in
culture.
77 Perissinotto, Cristina. "In the Land of the Pueri Sapientes: Magical Caprices in Two Novels by Alessandro
Baricco." RLA: Romance Languages Annual 10.1 (1998): 341-4.
78 Ferme, Valerio. "Travel and Repetition in the Work of Alessandro Baricco: Reconfiguring the Real through the
Myth of the 'Eternal' (?) Return." Italian Culture 18.1 (2000): 57.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 23
Conclusion
…i libri parlano sempre di altri libri e ogni storia racconta una storia giÃ
raccontata. Lo sapeva Omero…79
There is no doubt that the Iliad and the Odyssey have maintained for millennia an
"enormity…of cultural presence"80 and that Baricco is one of millions inspired by Homer's
legacy. It is difficult even to measure the effect that Homer's work has had on western culture
and contemporary literature, "so deeply has it shaped our imagination and cultural values".81
However, the influence upon Baricco's work is clear; in his fictional works, Baricco has
successfully implemented ancient story-patterns, themes and rhyme schemes that have been
proven to delight audiences for centuries and have shown clearly by Baricco's success to have
also captured the imagination of his own readers.
His novels are Homeric in the most basic way, their "monomythic" story-pattern, but also
have more specific Homeric elements like rhetorical devices, imagery or allusion. For example,
Baricco's description of "...il pittore Plason davanti al suo quadro bianco, metafora di nulla…"82
at the beginning of Oceano Mare conjures up the image of Homer invoking the Muse as he tries
to create an epic from a "blank canvas". Even some characters of Baricco are Homeric, for
example, Mrs. Rail in Castelli di Rabbia and Hélène in Seta waiting patiently and faithfully at
home for their philandering husbands are perfect images of the beautiful and admirable
Penelope.83 In fact, Anna Devaria of Oceano Mare is an unfaithful female protagonist of
79 Eco, Umberto. Postille a Il Nome Della Rosa. Milano: Bompiani 1984.
80 Hall, Edith. The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer's Odyssey. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press 2008, 3.
81 Ibid.
82 Pezzin, Claudio. Alessandro Baricco. Sommacampagna: Cierre Edizioni 2001, 35.
83 Baricco, Alessandro. Castelli di Rabbia. Milano: Rizzoli 1991; Seta. Milano: BUR La Scala 1996.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 24
Baricco's and she and her lover are murdered violently, much like Clytemnestra and her lover
Aegisthus.84
However, in Eco's definition of postmodern literature, he says that, while a postmodern
work is in large part a product of other, previously written works, it also maintains its own,
unique irony.85 The irony of Baricco lies in his tone; each work "[è] una narrativa teatrale che ha
spesso i toni di un umorismo grottesco e paradossale..."86 In addition, the extrememly unique
worlds in Baricco's works are characterized by "...una costante violazione del canone del
reale...nel caos vitale dell'immaginazione, una condizione ideale e utopica che può essere vissuta
solo nella consapevole accettazione dell'assurdità e dell'insignificanza..."87 One critic sees this
type of world as part of a unifying theme of "infinity"88 throughout Baricco's work, "which
stands for the unlimitedness of things and its impact on the characters who are subjected to
peculiar conditions of space and time".89 There is unlimited potential in the "infinite" worlds of
imagination and the "absurdity" of it all "…implies that 'infinity' acquires no clearly specified
meaning".90 It is a bleak conclusion to come to after all of the creativity and invention it takes to
create these imaginative worlds. This "infinite" quality is not often found in Italian literature and
is likened more to the "baroque" effect found in Latin American narrative literature.91 Thus
Baricco's work is characterized both by an extreme uniqueness as well as being influenced by
one of the most imitated authors of all time. He is drawing upon the ancient and with the
84 Baricco, Alessandro. Ocean Mare. Milano: BUR La Scala 1993.
85 Eco, Umberto. Postille a Il Nome Della Rosa. Milano: Bompiani 1984.
86 Pezzin, Claudio. Alessandro Baricco . Sommacampagna: Cierre Edizioni 2001, 7.
87 Ibid, 8.
88 Lanslots, Inge. "Alessandro Baricco's Infinite Tales." Spunti e Ricerche: Rivista d'Italianistica 14 (1999): 47.
89 Ibid, 50.
90 Ibid, 54.
91 Ibid, 47.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 25
addition of a new perspective, he has created a truly postmodernist work according to Eco's
definition.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 26
Appendix
Fig. 1 (Foley, 10)
Here are some combinations of actions and epithet names that Homer commonly used to fit his
lines into the parameters of the meter of the line along with how often they appear in the epics.
Multiple actions Single noun-epithet name
But pondered (1 occurrence) +long-suffering divine Odysseus
But went through the house (1 occurrence) +long-suffering divine Odysseus
Again spoke (8 occurrences) +long-suffering divine Odysseus
Then sat there (1 occurrence) +long-suffering divine Odysseus
Single action Multiple noun-epithet names
And then spoke to him/her +long-suffering divine Odysseus (3)
And then spoke to him/her +swift-footed Achilles (2)
And then spoke to him/her +ox-eyed mistress Hera (4)
And then spoke to him/her +Gerenian horseman Nestor (8)
And then spoke to him/her +goddess grey-eyed Athena (7)
And then spoke to him/her +Diomedes of the great war-cry (1)
Fig. 2 (Google)
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 27
Works Cited
Baricco, Alessandro. Castelli di Rabbia. Milano: Rizzoli 1991.
---. City. Milano: Rizzoli 1999.
---. Oceano Mare. Milano: BUR La Scala 1993.
---. Omero, Iliade (2004). Milan: Feltrinelli 2008.
---. Novecento. Milano: Feltrinelli 1994.
---. Seta. Milano: BUR La Scala 1996.
Basili, Sonia. "Il Doppio Regno e Oceano Mare: Punti Di Confine e Alibi Di Fuga Nei
Personaggi Di Paola Capriolo e Alessandro Baricco." Narrativa 10 (1996): 185-206.
Bellavia, Elisa. "La Lingua Di Alessandro Baricco." Otto/Novecento 25.1 (2001): 135-68.
Bini, Daniela. "La Voce Del Mare: Da Oceano Mare Di Baricco a La Leggenda Del Pianista
Sull'Oceano Di Tornatore." Italica 79.1 (2002): 44-61.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Princeton University Press
1973.
Contarini, Silvia. "Corrente e Controcorrente." Narrativa 12 (1997): 27-50.
De Michiel, Margherita. "Oceano Mare." Athanor: Rivista d'Arte, Letteratura, Semiotica,
Filosofia 7 (1996): 77-80.
Doty, William G. "Joseph Campbell's Myth and/versus Religion." Soundings: An
Interdisciplinary Journal 79.3-4 (1996): 421-45.
Eco, Umberto. Postille a Il Nome Della Rosa. Milano: Bompiani 1984.
Fattori, Ivana Van Lieshout. "Personaggi Simbolo in Oceano Mare Di Alessandro Baricco." '...E
c'è Di Mezzo Il Mare': Lingua, Letteratura e Civiltà Marina, II. Ed. Bart Van den Bossche,
Michel Bastiaensen, and Corinna Salvadori Lonergan. Florence, Italy: Cesati, 2002. 467-
472.
Ferme, Valerio. "Travel and Repetition in the Work of Alessandro Baricco: Reconfiguring the
Real through the Myth of the 'Eternal' (?) Return." Italian Culture 18.1 (2000): 49-69.
Foley, John. "'Reading' Homer through Oral Tradition." College Literature 34.2 (2007): 1-28.
Alessandro Baricco: A Modern Homer Losapio 28
Google Image Result for Http://www.dlackey.org/lessonplans/images/heroic Cycle.jpg." Google
Images. Web. 16 Mar. 2010.
Hall, Edith. The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer's Odyssey. Baltimore: The
Johns Hopkins University Press 2008.
Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. New York: Harper Perennial
2007.
Lanslots, Inge. "Alessandro Baricco's Infinite Tales." Spunti e Ricerche: Rivista d'Italianistica 14
(1999): 47-57.
Lazzarin, Stefano. "Bartleby, Barnabooth, Bartlebooth, Bartleboom: Baricco e Il Grande Oceano
Delle Storie." Narrativa 16 (1999): 143-65.
Matkovic, Roberta. "Le Sette Ottave Dell'Oceano." Collana della Rivista Studia Romanica et
Anglica Zagrabiensia 1 (2004): 498-505.
Perissinotto, Cristina. "In the Land of the Pueri Sapientes: Magical Caprices in Two Novels by
Alessandro Baricco." RLA: Romance Languages Annual 10.1 (1998): 341-4.
Rushing, Robert. "Alessandro Baricco's Seta: Travel, Ventriloquism and the Other." MLN 118.1
(2003): 209-36.
Senardi, Fulvio. "Alessandro Baricco, Ovvero...Che Storia Mi Racconti?" Problemi: Periodico
Quadrimestrale di Cultura 112 (1998): 261-96.
Tarantino, Elisabetta. "Alessandro Baricco e La Totemizzazione Della Letteratura." Il Romanzo
Contemporaneo: Voci Italiane. Ed. Franca Pellegrini and Elisabetta Tarantino. Leicester,
England: Troubador, 2006. 79-92.
---. "Sailing Off on the Adel: Alessandro Baricco's Metaliterary Trilogy (Part I)." Romance
Studies 25.3 (2007): 241-55.
---. "Sailing Off on the Adel: Alessandro Baricco's Metaliterary Trilogy (Part 2)." Romance
Studies 25.4 (2007): 323-37.
Van den Bogaert, Annelies. "Alessandro Baricco: Fra Novecento e Il Mare c'è Di Mezzo La
Musica." '...E c'è Di Mezzo Il Mare': Lingua, Letteratura e Civiltà Marina, II. Ed. Bart Van
den Bossche, Michel Bastiaensen, and Corinna Salvadori Lonergan. Florence, Italy: Cesati,
2002. 451-466.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
- Robert Rushing
Alessandro Baricco's novel Seta (Silk) seems acutely aware of the Orientalist tradition of travel literature that it belongs to. Ultimately, Baricco seems to be critical of this model of identity and travel (encountering the Other only to banish it and re-affirm the Self) as narcissistic, a wholly imaginary encounter with difference. The dissipation of the threat is not at all effortless in Seta, and leaves deliberate and constant traces of its erasure, in particular, the specter of difference within rather than difference between. The novel suggests that it may be impossible to establish a secure bulwark against 'otherness.' If travel literature aims ultimately at an 'arrest,' a soothing quiescence as the voyage comes to an end, as well as an epistemic 'seizure,' a grasping of a final and stable knowledge of Self and Other (a knowledge that re-affirms the greater importance of the Self)Ñif that is the case, then the discovery of difference within raises the possibility of a movement without end, of knowledge that cannot be fully and totally apprehended, full of anxiety as well as possibility.
- John Miles Foley
Twentieth-century research demonstrated that Homer's Iliad and Odyssey began as part of an ancient Greek oral tradition, and were passed down by word of mouth through generations of oral poets before and for some time after the invention of the alphabet. As the twenty-first century dawns, the modern (re)discovery of these unwritten origins is exerting an enormous influence on how we understand and teach the poems, presenting new answers to the ages-old "Homeric Question"–Who was Homer?–and suggesting comparisons with living oral epic traditions on five continents. By paying attention to the trademark structures and idiomatic values of Homer's language, the bequest of oral tradition, we can "read" the poems more faithfully. The perspective from oral tradition solves such stubborn and longstanding challenges as the heavy repetition of phrases and scenes, as well as the non-chronological order and anti-climactic ending of the Odyssey. Oral tradition can also show how Penelope emerges as a full-fledged hero–in some ways even more central a figure than her husband Odysseus.
- Elisabetta Tarantino
This study argues that the metaliterary aspect constitutes a fundamental and unifying concern within Alessandro Baricco's first three novels. The author's leaning towards a self-reflexive mode of representation is demonstrated by the endings of Castelli di rabbia and Oceano Mare. However, this aspect pervades all the main thematic strands of both novels, amounting to a consistent vision on Baricco's part. This also relates to the author's views on the relationship of the general public with art and culture, as illustrated in Baricco's newspaper articles and musicological essays. A similar vision applies to the author's third novel, Seta, which, though it does not include an explicitly metafictional epilogue, can in fact be seen as a daring and coherent metaphor of the role and development of fiction in the last few centuries.
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311517690_Alessandro_Baricco_A_Modern_Homer_Alessandro_Baricco_Omero_Modern
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