Écho des études romanes 2017, 13(2):301-313 | DOI: 10.32725/eer.2017.039
Il libro fittizio: storia e funzioni di un espediente letterarioItalian
- Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza
Parole-chiave: Libri fittizi; Funzioni; Rabelais; Cervantes; Borges; Calvino
Fictional books: history and functions of a literary device
The article deals with the topos of fictional books that only exist inside others books. Firstly, a theoretical study about fictional books is presented, such as the ones by Max Beerbohm and by Lyon Sprague de Camp. Then, we focus on the function of fictional books in some authors from the early modern to the contemporary age. The first two trends are the satirical one, from François Rabelais' Pantagruel, and the invention of the sources in Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quijote. During the twentieth century, fictional books acquire more and more functions. We will analyze the cases of Jorge Luis Borges, who uses the fictional book in order to create fantastic worlds, and that of Italo Calvino, who uses books inside books as a meta-literary tool in the novel Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (1979). These and other examples will be analyzed with the aim of understanding the reasons for the great numbers of fictional books over the centuries.
Keywords: Fictional books; Functions; Rabelais; Cervantes; Borges; Calvino
Published: December 11, 2017 Show citation
References
- ALBANI Paolo (2002), Cataloghi di libri immaginari, in : L'oggetto libro 2001, Edizioni Sylvestre Bonnard, Milano, 2002, pp. 200-215.
- ALBANI Paolo; DELLA BELLA Paolo (2003), Mirabilia. Catalogo ragionato di libri introvabili, Zanichelli.
- BEERBOHM Max (1914), Books within books, in : Id. (1920) And Even Now (Essays), London, William Heinemann, pp. 101-118.
- BLUMENTHAL Walter Hart (1966), Imaginary Books and Phantom Libraries, Philadelphia, George S. MacManus Company.
- BORGES Jorge Luis (2014), Cuentos completos, Barcellona, Debolsillo.
- BRUNET Gustave (1851), Essai sur les bibliothèques imaginaires, Paris, Imprimerie de Ch. Lahure et Cie.
- CALVINO Italo (1979), Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore, Milano, Mondadori.
- CAMMAROTA Domenico (1986), Gli Pseudobiblia di Chtulhu, in : Gianni Pilo, L'orrore di Chtulhu, Roma, Fanucci, pp. 217-233.
- CERVANTES Miguel de (2005), El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, Madrid, Espasa Calpe.
- DE TURRIS Gianfranco, FUSCO Sebastiano (1975), Gli pseudobiblia nella letteratura fantastica, in : Robert William Chambers (ed.), Il re in giallo, Roma, Fanucci, pp. 7-28.
- GUADALUPI Gianni (1997), Biblioteche immaginarie, in: DI GIURO Vittorio (ed.), Manuale enciclopedico della bibliofilia
- FUMAGALLI Giuseppe (1892), Delle biblioteche immaginarie e dei libri che non esistono, Milano, Tipografia Lombardi.
- FUMAGALLI Giuseppe Fumagalli, OLSCHKI Leo, Biblioteche immaginarie e roghi di libri.
- PALAZZI Roberto (2002), Il labirinto dei libri falsi, inesistenti e immaginari. Alcune storie e qualche esempio, in : MISITI Maria Cristina (ed.), Collezionismo, restauro e antiquariato libraio, Milano, Sylvestre Bonnard, pp. 331-358.
- SERRAI Alfredo (1993), Cataloghi fantastici, in : Storia della bibliografia, vol. IV, Roma, Bulzoni, pp. 272-280.
- SPRAGUE DE CAMP Lyon (1947), The unwritten classics, in :, 29th March 1947.
- TUZZI Hans (1997), Cataloghi immaginari, in: DI GIURO Vittorio (ed.), Manuale enciclopedico della bibliofilia
- WEBSTER SPARGO John (1952), Imaginary books and libraries, an essay in lighter vein, Chicago, Caxton Club.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.