Literature
Italy
Italo Svevo and The Confessions of Zeno
By Lara and Marta
Italo Svevo was born , the
fifth of nine children , at
midnight between 19 and
20 December 1861 in
Trieste from a wealthy
Jewish family , the father
Franz Schmitz ( 1829-92 )
was a German merchant ,
the mother Allegra Moravia
( 1832-95 ) was Italian .
In 1874 , he was sent by
his father to live and study,
together with his two
brothers Adolfo and Elio ,
the College of Segnitz in
Bavaria, where he studied
German and other useful
materials for the business.
His training took place then
in a purely German
language element that will
profoundly affect his
literary style .
In 1878 he returned to
Trieste and ends its
journey in business studies
at the Institute Pasquale
Revoltella . While devoting
himself to business
studies, cultivates a deep
interest in literary culture
before reading the German
classics and later the
Italian classics .
Meanwhile, in 1886 dies
brother Elio , and Hector
began to write comedies .
In 1892 , the year his
father died , there is the
publication of this first
novel, A Life , signed with
!
the pseudonym definitive "
Italo Svevo " .
Attending a course of
English at the Berlitz
School in Trieste in 1907 ,
he met the Irish writer
James Joyce, his teacher.
Joyce encouraged him to
write a new novel and ,
around 1910 , thanks to
brother , Bruno Veneziani ,
on the advice of Edward
Weiss went to Vienna and
tries to seek treatment
from Sigmund Freud ,
came into contact with
Freudian psychoanalysis .
In 1919 he collaborated
with the newspaper The
Nation , and began writing
Confessions of Zeno , later
published in 1923 , still
without success, until
1925 , when his friend
Joyce proposes some
French critics .
The third novel, The
Confessions of Zeno
In 1919 he began writing
his third novel, The
Confessions of Zeno ,
which will publish in 1923
from the publisher Hats of
Bologna.
Joyce who reads the book
and appreciate it , advises
his friend to send it to
some French critics who
will devote , in 1926 , the
Confessions of Zeno and
the other two novels, the
bulk of the file dellarivista
The work summarizes the
human experience of
Zeno , who tells his own
life so ironically
disillusioned and detached
appears to him that the
existence tragic and comic
together . Zeno has
matured and convictions
under these assumptions
the protagonist acquires
the wisdom to see human
life as a brilliant comedy
and to understand that the
only way to be healthy is
the persuasion of it.
It is characterized by
distinctive architecture :
the novel in the traditional
sense is no more; takes
over the diary , in which
the narrative takes place in
the first person and does
not have a hierarchy in the
events described , a
further confirmation of the
crushing of the ' identity of
the character narrating .
The protagonist, in fact, is
no longer a figure in the
round, a character, but a
consciousness that is
constructed through
memory , or of Zeno exists
only through what he
intends to rebuild his
conscience.
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