Scipio Slataper – författare

Scipio Slataper is one of the most prominent writers from the Italian town of Trieste. Before the onslaught of World War One, Trieste was a unique urban environment and the largest port in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a financially powerful city and a cosmopolitan centre where Slavic, Germanic, and Italian cultures intersected. Much of Slataper’s oeuvre is highly influenced by Trieste’s cultural complexity and its multi-ethnic environment.

Slataper’s major literary achievement, My Karst and My City – a fictionalized, lyrical autobiography, translated here in its entirety – offers a unique example of an Italian modernist narrative, one that is influenced both by Slataper’s collaboration with the Florentine journal La Voce, and by the Germanic and Scandinavian literature that he absorbed while living in Trieste. My Karst and My City, together with the excerpts from his reflections on Ibsen and other critical essays included here, adds a new voice and a different dimension to our understanding of European modernism.

Scipio Slataper is one of the most prominent writers from the Italian town of Trieste. Before the onslaught of World War One, Trieste was a unique urban environment and the largest port in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a financially powerful city and a cosmopolitan centre where Slavic, Germanic, and Italian cultures intersected. Much of Slataper’s oeuvre is highly influenced by Trieste’s cultural complexity and its multi-ethnic environment.

Slataper’s major literary achievement, My Karst and My City – a fictionalized, lyrical autobiography, translated here in its entirety – offers a unique example of an Italian modernist narrative, one that is influenced both by Slataper’s collaboration with the Florentine journal La Voce, and by the Germanic and Scandinavian literature that he absorbed while living in Trieste. My Karst and My City, together with the excerpts from his reflections on Ibsen and other critical essays included here, adds a new voice and a different dimension to our understanding of European modernism.

L''opera viene concepita come un''autobiografia lirica e si articola in tre parti corrispondenti a tre periodi della vita del protagonista-autore, l''infanzia, la giovinezza e la maturita. Momenti chiave del simbolismo del libro sono la discesa a Trieste e la salita sul Secchieta, che corrispondono a momenti di svolta nella vita di Scipio. Il punto centrale dell''opera e la disperazione per il suicidio della donna amata e per la morte della madre. Per Slataper l''atto del suicidio toglie valore e senso a qualunque atto umano. Nonostante questo, dopo un lungo dramma interiore, la conclusione e positiva e si concretizza nell''ultima, bellissima pagina in cui viene condensato il messaggio del libro: anche se non esistono piu valori assoluti che possano giustificare e dare un senso alla vita e alle azioni degli uomini il protagonista sceglie di andare avanti ugualmente e di accettare l''esistenza cosi com''e in base ai principi del volontarismo etico.