Dusza Kalabrii
The Soul of Calabria

Author(s): Kazimiera Alberti
Contributor(s): Sandra Strugała (Translator), Małgorzata Ślarzyńska (Translator), Marcin Wyrembelski (Translator), Mariusz Jochemczyk (Editor), Miłosz Piotrowiak (Editor), Janina Janas (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Literary Texts, Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology, Italian literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Italy; Calabria; travel; travellogue; reportage; Alberti
Summary/Abstract: Kazimiera Alberti's book is an excellent example of genre literature: it is a travel reportage written with verve. "The Soul of Calabria" is the first link in a four-element series called "Unknown Italy". As such, it belongs to the world heritage called "Grand Tour" literature. Writers' pilgrimages to the sources of Mediterranean culture have for centuries been an element forming an individual's consciousness and have determined the scale of the cognitive horizons of an outstanding person. As Italian critics note (just after the publication of subsequent volumes of the Italian series), Alberti's writing is situated on the side of mature philosophical reflection related to determining the place of a post-war man in a "devastated" culture and space. Alberti remains in the absolute European avant-garde – combining meditation on the landscape, observations of people and heritage objects with historiosophical reflection and poetic sensitivity of diagnosis. In this, she comes close to the monumental achievements of, for example, P.P. Pasolini (cf. "La lunga strada di sabbia") or G. Piovene. The first part of the work takes us towards the heritage of Magna Graecia.

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