Tre letture dalle pagine di Carlo Levi

Abstract

Analyzing some of Carlo Levi's best-known pages, this contribution highlights three fundamental topics that permeate his oeuvre. From Christ Stopped at Eboli, the theme of birth and separation emerges in the revelation of anthropological affinities and the conflict between historically distant civilizations: the rationalistic, industrial, and urban (Turin, Paris) versus the mythic-poetic, peasant (Aliano, Lucania), both assimilated by a “southerner from Turin.” From The Watch, the theme centers on historical-political conception and disillusionment during the transition from the Resistance, rich with opportunities, to the obtuse democratic restoration of the post-war period, highlighting the persistent conflict between producers (“Contadini”) and those who appropriate their work (“Luigini”). Finally, from an unpublished diary page about an exhibition of Jackson Pollock, this paper explores the theme of the conflict between a painting of gesture and transformation and an avant-garde painting obsessed with deformation and death.