{"id":63,"date":"2017-02-01T14:47:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T14:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litcaricature.wordpress.com\/?p=63"},"modified":"2024-10-02T08:43:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T08:43:10","slug":"the-cognition-of-priapo-gadda-and-caricature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/2017\/02\/01\/the-cognition-of-priapo-gadda-and-caricature\/","title":{"rendered":"The cognition of Priapus. Gadda and caricature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is out my last essay,\u00a0The Cognition of Priapus<\/em>. Caricature procedures in Carlo Emilio Gadda\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Eros e Priapo. Here<\/a> it is available the English abstract, while here<\/a> you can find the whole\u00a0essay in Italian.<\/p>\n

I extract from the essay three different caricatural\u00a0descriptions of Benito Mussolini provided by Gadda in his controversial pamphlet Eros e Priapo<\/em>, written between 1944 and 1945. In the first, Gadda portraits the image of Mussolini speaking from the sadly well-known balcony:<\/p>\n

Di colass\u00f9 i berci, i grugniti, i sussulti priapeschi, lo strabuzzar d\u2019occh\u00ee e le levate di ceffo d\u2019una tracotanza priapesca: dopo la esibizione del dittatorio mento e del ventre, dopo lo sporgimento di quel suo prolassato e incinturato ventrone, dopo il dondolamento, in sui tacchi, e ginocch\u00ee, di quel culone suo goffo e inappetibile a chicchessia, ecco ecco ecco eja eja eja il glorioso, il virile manustupro: e la consecutiva maschia polluzione alla facciazza del \u00abp\u00f2ppolo\u00bb.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The second caricature ridicules the bourgeois-like image adopted by the former revolutionary Mussolini after the conquest of power:<\/p>\n

Pervenne alle ghette color tortora, che portava con la disinvoltura d\u2019un orango, ai pantaloni a righe, al tight, al tubino gi\u00e0 detto, ai guanti bianchi del commendatore e dell\u2019agente di cambio uricemico: dell\u2019odiato ma lividamente invidiato borghese. Con que\u2019 du\u2019 grappoloni di banane delle du\u2019 mani, che gli dependevano a\u2019 fianchi, rattenute da du\u2019 braccini corti corti: le quali non ebbono mai conosciuto lavoro e gli stavano attaccate a\u2019 bracci come le fussono morte e di pezza, e senza aver che fare davanti \u2019l fotografo: i ditoni dieci d\u2019un sudanese inguantato. Pervenne.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This description reveals an unquestionable affinity with visual caricatures published in satirical newspapers and magazines, particularly in the early Twenties, such as the following by the caricaturist Carlin.<\/p>\n

\"senza-titolo\"

Carlin (Carlo Bergoglio),\u00a0La riapertura della camera<\/em>, \u00a0\u00abPasquino\u00bb, 48, 1922<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, Gadda deforms\u00a0Mussolini\u2019s figure, and particularly his head and face, adopting a pseudo-medical perspective, mixing up dismissed disciplines and brand new disciplines, such as physiognomy and psychoanalysis,\u00a0in order to connect physical features of the man and psychological and psychiatric explanations of his behaviour:<\/p>\n

Vorrei essere fren\u00f2logo e psichiatra per poter iscrutare\u00a0la follia tetra d\u2019un gaglioffo ipocalcico dalle gambe a roncola, autoerot\u00f2mane, eredoalcoolico ed eredoluetico: e luetico in proprio. Da discrivere e pingere in aula magna que\u2019 due mascelloni del teratoc\u00e8falo e rachitoide babb\u00e8o, e l\u2019esoftalmo dello spiritato based\u00f2wico, le sue finte furie di scacarcione sifoloso.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To deeply understand the inner misshapen\u00a0thoughts and wishes of the dictator, his face and body must be \u00abdepicted\u00bb\u00a0according to a deformation endowed with\u00a0a critical meaning.<\/p>\n

Quotes are from:<\/p>\n

Carlo Emilio Gadda,\u00a0Eros e Priapo. Versione originale<\/em>, edited by\u00a0Paola Italia and Giorgio Pinotti. Milano: Adelphi 2016.<\/p>\n

Carlo Emilio Gadda, Eros e Priapo. Da furore a cenere<\/em>, in Idem, Saggi Giornali Favole e altri scritti<\/em>, II, edited by\u00a0Claudio Vela, Gianmarco Gaspari, Giorgio Pinotti, Franco Gavazzeni, Dante Isella, Maria Antonietta Terzoli. Milano: Garzanti 1992.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is out my last essay,\u00a0The Cognition of Priapus. Caricature procedures in Carlo Emilio Gadda\u2019s\u00a0Eros e Priapo. Here it is available the English abstract, while here you can find the whole\u00a0essay in Italian. I extract from the essay three different caricatural\u00a0descriptions … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,15,7,9,19,13,1],"tags":[21,23,24,25,27,28,30,31],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-20th-century","category-historical-figures","category-images","category-press","category-prose","category-texts","category-uncategorized","tag-body","tag-eros-e-priapo","tag-face","tag-gadda","tag-italy","tag-man","tag-mussolini","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}