Tra Graziella e Antoniella: la Procida di Lamartine

Abstract

Alvio Patierno’s work evokes the Lamartinian Procida arising from the fortunate biographical-literary combination of the two periods spent by the author in Naples (in 1811-1812 and in 1844). Fearful of openly recalling the flirtation with the cigarette maker Antoniella, Lamartine renames her Graziella, thus combining all the elements necessary to create a romantic identity, as to say the popular myth of Graziella which is still alive today. In this respect, Alvio Patierno considers the relationship between Graziella and the primacy of nature, as well as the Lamartinian oxymoron between literary falsehood and romantic truth, the oxymoron capable of crystallizing the narration of people’s life and work that is represented by Procida. The tableaux-vivants novel, certainly centred on a romantic love story, is conceived, through the desire to restore the chorality of Procida’s people, as an anthropologic interpretation of the humble with an important page focussing on work: from fishing to coral manufacturing, an activity to which Graziella proudly dedicates herself and whose appearance in the novel, besides metaphorically reflecting the landscape of the island in her facial features, corresponds to the happiest moment of the story.