Europe’s Places and Spaces: Claudio Magris Between East and West

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the central themes in the works of Claudio Magris through a critical reading of Danube, A Different Sea, Microcosms, Utopia e disincanto [Utopia and disenchantment], Blindly, Journeying, and Alfabeti [Alphabets]. Magris’s work, be it his fiction or essays, abounds with descriptions and narrations of spaces and places, which become central to his world-view as an author. These spaces and places, located primarily in Central Europe and in the surroundings of his own city, Trieste, inspired his turn to Eastern Europe, including the Slavic countries. Conscious of the Western Europeans’ often condescending view of the East, Magris became a vocal critic of Western Eurocentrism, which he attributed to their insufficient familiarity with the cultures and histories of their Eastern neighbours. Magris’s primary interest has always been Europe’s ethnic and cultural coexistence, with a particular affinity with dissident, nationless, and exiled literary figures, in line with his notion of hybrid, fluid, and multiple identities. The works of Magris offer compelling reflections on a Europe viewed through the contradictory encounters between East and West. As such they have contributed to the gradual creation of hybrid identities, which, through their historical palimpsests, have become part of a broader cultural geography.

KEYWORDS:

• Claudio Magris
• Places
• Spaces
• Europe
• East
• West

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. Westphal, Geocriticism, 115.

^2. Ibid., 156. For a discussion of Triestine writers, see Elena Coda’s essay “From la Favilla to Claudio Magris: Trieste’s European Identity” in this special issue.

^3. White, “The Great Field of Geopoetics.” https://www.institut-geopoetique.org/en/founding-texts/133-the-great-field-of-geopoetics.

^4. Magris, Journeying, 16.

^5. Westphal, Geocriticism, 101.

^6. Magris, Journeying, 12. For a discussion of condensed time in Magris’s oeuvre, see Natalie Dupré’s essay “Traveling Europe ‘Through Time and Against Time’: Persuasion and Eternal Con-temporariness in Claudio Magris’s Narratives” in this special issue.

^7. See Ara and Magris, Trieste: Un’identità di frontiera.

^8. Magris, Utopia e disincanto, 52.

^9. Ceserani, “Fiume/Fiumi,” 624.

^10. Beccaria, “Anse,” II.

^11. Magris, Utopia e disincanto, 52.

^12. Pireddu Works of Claudio Magris, 62.

^13. Cassano, Southern Thought, 43 (emphasis in the original).

^14. Magris, Utopia e disincanto, 53.

^15. Magris, Journeying, 9.

^16. Мagris, Microcosms, 151. See also Natalie Dupré, “Traveling Europe ‘Through Time and Against Time’: Persuasion and Eternal Con-temporariness in Claudio Magris’s Narratives” in this special issue.

^17. Magris, “Postfazione,” 284–85.

^18. Magris, A Different Sea, 51.

^19. Magris, “Istria Spring,” in Journeying, 140.

^20. Magris, Microcosms, 142.

^21. Ibid., 144–45.

^22. Magris, A Different Sea, 77.

^23. Magris, Microcosms, 161–64.

^24. Magris, Blindly, 65.

^25. Mozzachiodi, “Goli Otok come metafora,” 384–85.

^26. Magris, Danube, 342, 343.

^27. Magris, Alfabeti, 297, 298.

^28. Magris, Danube, 106.

^29. Ibid., 317.

^30. Magris, Alfabeti, 301.

^31. Magris, Journeying, 167.

^32. Magris, Alfabeti, 319.

^33. Magris, Journeying, 137.

^34. Magris, Danube, 300.

^35. Magris, Utopia e disincanto, 228.

^36. Ibid., 229.

^37. Ibid.

^38. Gjurčinova, “Due discorsi di geopoetica a confronto.”

^39. Magris, “A Philology of the Sea,” 5.

^40. Roić, Istočno i zapadno od Trsta, 344.

^41. Matvejević, “L’Europa Centrale,” 132.

^42. Magris, Alfabeti, 319.

^43. Magris, I primi euro da Vienna e una convinzione, Sette, Il corriere della sera, 31 December 2021.

^44. Maalouf, In the Name of Identity, 159. For a comparative analysis of Magris’s and Maalouf’s notion of identity, see Sandra Parmegiani’s essay “The Compass of Literature: Europe and the Mediterranean in Claudio Magris and Amin Maalouf” in this special issue.

^45. Magris, Danube, 42. For a discussion of “hinternational” in Magris’s Danube, see Salvatore Pappalardo’s essay “Dockings on Danubio: Claudio Magris, Mitteleuropa, and the Hinternational Future of Europe” in this special issue.

^46. Magris, Utopia e disincanto, 60–61.

^47. Magris, Journeying, 16.

^48. Magris, Blindly, 99.

^49. Pireddu, Works of Claudio Magris, 120.

^50. Magris, Alfabeti, 478.

^51. Magris, Danube, 265.

^52. Magris, Utopia e disincanto, 64.

^53. Balibar, We, the People of Europe, 18, 19.

^54. Magris, “Govor zahvalnosti,” 12.

^55. Magris, “Tra Italia e Slovenia,” 1.

^56. Magris, “I primi euro da Vienna.”

^57. Magris, Utopia e disincanto, 14.

^58. Balibar, We, the People of Europe, 21.

^59. Magris, Journeying, 165.

^60. Magris, Snapshots, 73, 74.

^61. Westphal, Geocriticism, 170.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anastasija Gjurčinova

Anastasija Gjurčinova is Professor of Italian Literature at the Faculty of Philology Blaže Koneski, at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, North Macedonia. Her research fields are Italian Literature, Comparative Literature, Intercultural Relations, and Translation Studies. Her publications include six books of essays and criticism and several edited anthologies and proceedings of scientific conferences. Her translations into Macedonian include works by Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Italo Calvino, Claudio Magris, Niccolò Ammaniti, Sandro Veronesi, Paolo Giordano, and Fabio Geda.