„Wszystko już tu było, od samego początku” – Mikrokosmosy Claudia Magrisa jako triesteńska auto/bio/geografia

Abstract

The aim of my article is to study the relation between the subject and the city, focusing on the case of an autobiographic essayistic novel by a contemporary Italian writer Claudio Magris. The space of Trieste, author’s native city, plays a multiple role in the Microcosms narration. On one hand, it works as a “mnemotechnical pretext” for the protagonist’s sentimental journey into the past, both individual and collective. On the other hand, the city space can be seen as an active factor, shaping the hero’s “triestine” state of mind and reflecting itself in the novel’s poetics. In my analysis, I refer to some essential categories of geopoetics (“auto/ bio/geography” by Elżbieta Rybicka, Tadeusz Sławek’s and Stefan Symotiuk’s interpretations of genius loci), as well as to Walter Benjamin’s oeuvre, which I consider one of the most important Microcosms’ intertexts.