Sekrety Apulii
Secrets of Apulia

Author(s): Kazimiera Alberti
Contributor(s): Sandra Strugała (Translator), Małgorzata Ślarzyńska (Translator), Marcin Wyrembelski (Translator), Janina Janas (Editor), Mariusz Jochemczyk (Editor), Miłosz Piotrowiak (Editor)
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology, Italian literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Italy; Apulia; travel; travelogue; reportage; Kazimiera Alberti
Summary/Abstract: Kazimiera Alberti's book is an excellent example of genre literature: it is a travel reportage written with verve. Secrets of Apulia is the second 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.

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