Da Sterne a Pasternak: Tra gli appunti dell’agenda del 1958

Abstract

Drawing from diary notes housed in the Renzo Deaglio Library in Alassio, this essay revisits two literary events featuring Carlo Levi in 1958. The first event pertains to Levi's composition of the preface for Einaudi's publication of Tristram Shandy that same year. In the preface, Levi subtly juxtaposes it with L’Orologio, interpreting Sterne's anti-narrative structure and penchant for digression—symbolized by the “marbled page”, likened to a Pollock painting—as a means of escaping time's grasp. The second event involves the controversy surrounding Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize for Doctor Zhivago. Levi, steering clear of public discourse, closely monitors the affair within the pages of his diary, offering incisive critiques of the novel and sketching a sardonic portrayal of the Italian intellectual elite.