Umberto Eco Misreadings - Experiences in Translation

Umberto Eco  Misreadings   -  Experiences in Translation

https://yadi.sk/d/2prB8y7Gs2UEe

In 1959, for fl Verri, a literary magazine whose

contributors comprised many of the writers later to

form the "Gruppo 63," I began writing a monthly

column entitled Diario minima, a title dictated as

much by prudence as modesty. Into a p􀐑blication

filled with linguistic experiments of the neo-avantgarde

and impressive essays on Ezra Pound and

Chinese ideograms, I was introducing pages of freewheelir,ig

reflections on some minor subjects that,

often, were meant to parody the writings of other

contributors to the magazine, more zealous than I.

So, right at -the outset, I wanted to apologize to the

readers for having written those pages, pages deliberately

comic and grotesque, and therefore less dignified

than the rest of the magazine.

As my translator indicates in a prefatory note,

Mike Bongiorno, while unknown to non-Italians, belongs

to a familiar, international category; and, personally,

I continue to consider him a genius.

Obviously "Esquisse d'un nouveau chat" refers to

Alain Robbe-Grillet and the nouveau roman. As in

other instances, the parody here is meant as a tribute.

"The Latest from Heaven" reports from the next

world in terms of current political jargon. It was

written several decades ago, but I think it will be

comprehensible also in the age of Ross Perot and Pat

Buchanan.

In the same vein, "The End Is at Hand" is inspired

by the social criticism of Adorno and the school of

Frankfurt. Certain passages are indirect quotations

from Italian authors who were given to "Adornizing"

in those years. Like the piece that precedes it, this

text is an exercise in what is called today "alternative

anthropology" (not the world of others as seen by

us, but our world as seen by others). Montesquieu

already did this with Les Lettres Persanes. Some time

ago, a group of anthropologists invited African researchers

to France so that they could observe the

French way of life. The Africans were amazed to

find, for example, that the French were in the habit

of walking their dogs.