The Fantastic in the Works of Buzzati and Landolfi (Italy).

The dissertation centers on a thematic discussion of the fantastic in the works of Buzzati and Landolfi, as illustrative of the fantastic tale in modern Italian literature. The study explores the emergence of the fantastic within a predominantly neorealistic ambience, and examines its source and affinities to such literary movements as German Romanticism, Surrealism, and Existentialism, and to such authors as Hoffmann, Gogol and Kafka. The fantastic tale affords a glimpse into man's inner being. In its explorations of things new and unseen, the fantastic seeks to transcend the limits and confines of this reality and to embrace the authentic reality of the self. Buzzati and Landolfi share, with such writers as Kafka or the dramatists of the Theatre of the Absurd, the perception of the hopelessness of man's condition, and the prevailing sentiment of Angst and absurdity which characterize modern man's existence. Their works portray the ambiguity and frustration of man's plight, and point towards his unfathomable, unresolvable condition. Despite the stylistic differences of the two writers, their works converge in common sensibilities, intellectual orientation and in the thematic nature of the fantastic. The dream, hallucination, nightmare and insanity mark their fantastic worlds, as do the similar self-abortive quests of their heroes. Themes such as fear and guilt, the impossibility of love, as well as solitude and alienation, dominate their works. Buzzati's and Landolfi's affinity to their literary predecessors is discernible not only thematically, but structurally as well, in the frequent reversals of perspective which allow for the abrupt leap into the fantastic terrain. Other techniques, such as literalism, exaggeration, irony and paradox, also present the fantastic vision, in which surrealistic, uncanny and grotesque elements abound. In both writers, the fantastic itinerary reveals a movement away from reality towards a bizarre, estranged universe. The fantastic journey outlines man's attempt to transcend a mediocre destiny, and is synonymous with rebellion and transgression, hence giving rise to themes of fear, guilt and self-destruction. Buzzati and Landolfi converge in the vision of man's inability to alter his destiny. The fantastic journey traces, then, the irreversible path of its hero towards isolation and death and is characterized by a plethora of abysmal, apocalyptical imagery. In both writers, the bestiary, in all its multiple facets, from mythical creatures, repulsive animals and insects, to the demons and infernal machines, is the most dramatically intense expression of the fantastic world. As in Kafka's tales, the animal/insect images are the objectifications of the characters' fears and anxieties, and are interlaced with themes of aggression, sadism and eroticism. In both writers, love and marriage are parodied, and underscore the impossibility of a sincere and meaningful relationship. The fantastic tale embodies a crisis of consciousness in its confrontation with the reality beneath the surface. The fantastic writer seeks to communicate this vision, and to expand man's narrow perception of reality. The fantastic tale is, ultimately, a penetrating close-up view of the reality of the self, and the dramatization of the awareness of man's absurd condition.Ph.D.Comparative literatureUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158228/1/8116212.pd