For a change, the month of November, in France with François Villon:
Walks in homosexual slang. Classical Russia: The Nose by Nicolas Gogol
and Contemporary Russia: The Magus of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli.
Italy: Ernesto by Umberto Saba. And to finish, focus on Anarchism in the
Eastern and Western Mediterranean by Isabelle Felici and Costano
Paonessa. ---- ... "Let this refrain not remain with you: But where are
the snows of yesteryear?" ... ---- François Villon ---- The port of
Parga (Epirus), photo Patrick Schindler, 2024 ---- François Villon:
Walks in homosexual slang ---- François Villon, Walks in homosexual
slang (published by Mille et une nuits): a revealing little book on what
the certified censors tried to hide from us, while transforming François
Villon "into an unlucky being unjustly persecuted by everyone".! These
are indeed the words of Thierry Martin, the preface writer of this
little work who is keen to emphasize that contrary to the myth, "Villon
was a prankster and farter schoolboy"[note]!
Further on, Thierry Martin confirms that François Villon was indeed
homosexual: "He himself admits it in encrypted verses, found and studied
from 1884, of which we have mainly seen until now the apparent meaning,
intended to keep the uninitiated away." Thierry Martin then gives us a
"cash translation", suggestive and deciphered leaving no doubt on this
subject.
He then dwells on the difference between the slang of the coquillards,
that of the homosexual jobelins of Picardy of the 13th century and the
brief language of François Villon, "used by prostitutes to deceive the
police and clients." The latter obeying two rules: homosexuals of the
time (around 1460) were forbidden "not to sodomize an erect man and to
protect themselves by trying to disarm their opponent orally in order to
sodomize him"!
Here then: seven authenticated ballads by François Villon (with titles
that could not be more explicit: "Ballade des planters de culs",
"Ballade des emmanchés", etc.). The other four ballads being
"attributed", the first two to Villon and the last two, to his
homosexual friend and accomplice: Colin de Crayeux.
Excerpt from La balade des esquiveurs de bites!
On the left: in brief language and on the right in bold: contemporary
translation:
Many a coquillart horned by the save / More than one fucker dismasted by
this save
And dislodged from his ence or his poue / And deprived of his lever or
his member
(Beau de blunders, blandy of tawny tongue), / Unavailable for the
javelin, having been caressed by a treacherous tongue,
[He makes], at the ront, make the grims pout / Makes the grazers pluck
his perch a little
To square well so that it is not tied; / To re-bandage well so that it
is not threaded,
Couple your kings to beaulx-sire-dieus, / Couple your arrow to his priapus,
Or you will have the riffle in the cheek, / Otherwise you will have in
the mouth his stick,
Green rush, haven of the husband. / Its stiff stem refuge of the plowman.
In postface, before reminding us of the important dates of the life of
François Villon, Thierry Martin offers us a complete overview of
homosexuality at the time of François Villon before concluding: "As for
the hell promised to the sodomites, no one believed in it: the profane
theater, violently anticlerical, laughed at it as much as at
excommunication." Claro!
Nicolas Gogol: The nose
Nicolas Vassiliévitch Gogol was born in 1809 at the Vassilievka estate,
near Sorotchintsy, (located today in Ukraine). He is considered one of
the classic writers of Russian literature. He had a great influence on
Russian literature in the second half of the 19th century, notably on
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who is said to have said: "We all came out of
Gogol's Overcoat." His aura undoubtedly grew even more in the 20th
century. Mikhail Bulgakov was inspired by him for his masterpiece, The
Master and Margarita.
The preface to Gogol's Nose (ed. Allia, translated by the Russian Arthur
Larrue) gives us a little secret, which naturally is not to be revealed.
Let us instead allow ourselves to be led by Gogol to St. Petersburg in
the 1830s, "where there was little opportunity to laugh a lot." However,
in The Nose, there is a lot of laughter! So much so that it is not
surprising that this short story was rejected in 1834 by the editorial
board of L'Observateur moscovite, which was considered "dirty and
vulgar." It would actually only appear two years later, thanks to the
influence of Pushkin in The Contemporary.
Beginning of the plot: What is happening at the home of the drunken
barber, Ivan Yakovlevich? Where do these cries come from? Could it be
because while having breakfast, he found in his bread: a nose? If so,
was he so drunk the day before that he had inadvertently cut off the
nose of one of his customers with an unfortunate stroke of his razor? If
that is indeed the case, then his owner must be very annoyed at the
moment. And for good reason. But then, what to do? Get rid of him
discreetly? Suspense...
And while waiting for the ending, let us wander among colorful
characters and situations. This, for our greatest pleasure. Eternal Gogol!
Giuliano da Empoli: The Kremlin Mage
Giuliano da Empoli, born in 1973 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, is an
Italian-Swiss writer and political advisor.
In The Kremlin Magus (Folio), Vadim Baranov, nicknamed "the new
Rasputin" has just resigned from his position as advisor to the "Tsar",
meaning: Vladimir Putin... As a result, from eminence grise, he has just
been reduced to the status of a ghost. But for the moment, where can he
be hiding?
However, it turns out that it is not entirely by chance that the
narrator will succeed in finding him. The latter is doing passionate
research in Moscow on Evgueni Zamiatine, the "heretic" writer censored,
"as much by Tsar Nicholas II as by the Soviet regime". Having arrived at
Vadim Baranov's house under heavy guard, the latter receives the
narrator in his modest house under surveillance. It is there that he
hands him a rare document: a correspondence between Zamiatine and
Stalin, in which the former asks, in a direct style of the latter, for
permission to leave the USSR. And Baranov comments: "You are holding in
your hands one of the most beautiful supplications addressed by an
artist to Stalin. However, Zamyatin's problem was to have understood too
quickly what Sovietism was going to become and above all to have
committed the imprudence of writing it."
On this, Baranov begins to tell our narrator his whole story. It begins
with this sentence: "Power is like the sun and death, they cannot look
each other in the face." An image to show how three generations of his
family managed to slip through the net. His grandfather, at the time of
the "real Tsar"; his father "having almost managed to remain a good
communist until the decline of the regime" and finally, himself: a
student swimming in the electric Moscow of the 1990s, "where assumed
capitalism was going to take back the controls of the Sovietized country."
This is how we will go back through the last Tsarist years, then the
Soviet years, up to the end of the Yeltsin era and finally, the
twenty-five years of "sovereign democracy" under Putin.
We will then get to know the main actors in his entourage, all inspired
by the real protagonists, as well as his favorite concept: "the vertical
of power"! Baranov's comment: "This is how I too slipped into the new
regime with the naturalness of someone who had at least three centuries
of bowing and scraping in his blood." What follows is a real infernal
tango that begins with a flashback, where we see all the young wolves
dancing trying to take the place of the "old alcoholic bear", namely
Yeltsin.
Including, of course, the former KGB bureaucrat, Vladimir Putin, who
already sees himself as the "new Kalif in place of the Kalif"! And
that's when the famous Baranov will appear in his shadow, summoned to
the headquarters of the FSB (ex-KGB) who, a few days later, finds
himself in a French restaurant, face-to-face with Vladimir Putin who
hires him in order to "polish his image". And, we are only at the
beginning of the story. Will Baranov become Putin's "valet Matti" or
will it be the opposite? Magnificent portrait of an absolute power that
sends a chill down your spine!
NB: in the same vein, for people wondering about occultism in Russia, Le
Rat noir suggests you discover the astonishing document by Patrick
Maraloni, published in the Revue Basero (No. 2 & 3, éditions L'Echappée)
on telepathy in Tsarist Russia, then in the USSR until the 1930s.
Umberto Saba: Ernesto
Umberto Saba (pseudonym of Umberto Poli), was born on March 9, 1883 in
Trieste, then under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to a Jewish mother from
the Trieste ghetto and Ugo Edoardo Poli, a sales agent for a noble
Venetian family. When the First World War broke out, their son, Umberto
Saba, was called up for military service. It was during this period that
he discovered Friedrich Nietzsche. After the war, back in Trieste, he
began writing Canzoniere, became friends with Giacomo Debenedetti and
collaborated on the magazine Primo Tempo.
He participated in the literary world and gravitated in the spheres of
the magazine Solaria. Between 1929 and 1931, due to an intense nervous
crisis, he began an analysis with Edoardo Weiss (introducer of
psychoanalysis in Italy in 1932). It was then that critics discovered
Saba (as well as new young authors, Comisso, Penna, etc.) and began to
consider him a master.
In 1938, due to the "racial laws" put in place by Mussolini, Umberto
sold his bookstore and emigrated to Paris. He returned to Italy at the
end of 1939, first to Rome where Ungaretti tried in vain to help him,
then to Trieste, where he decided to face "the national tragedy" with
other Italians. On September 8, 1943, he was forced to flee with his
wife and daughter. He hid in Florence, changing apartments many times,
helped by the poet Eugenio Montale and Carlo Levi. After the war, Saba
stayed in Milan for ten years, returning episodically to Trieste.
Despite his two literary prizes, Saba remained distant from the
neo-realist milieu that fervently rediscovered him. His novelistic and
poetic work is resolutely autobiographical.
In the preface to Ernesto, (published by Seuil), the translator René de
Cecaty reveals the story of this posthumous autobiographical novel by
Umberto Saba, written in 1953, unfinished and only published in 1975,
thanks to the will of his daughter. It is a text of disturbing lucidity,
without concession, but not excluding a good dose of tenderness. The
preface writer then explains the translation difficulties due to the
Trieste dialect. Then, he gives us his interpretation of what decided
Saba (a married man and father) to make this kind of "late coming out"
about his first sexual experiences as a 16-year-old adolescent. Cecaty
also gives us a panorama of authors evoking the evolution of the
perception of homosexuality in European literature, from Oscar Wilde to
Marcel Proust and this, up to Jean Genet.
Ernesto. We are in Trieste in the very last years of the 19th century
under Austrian domination, while a dialogue is established between "the
man", an occasional laborer hired in a flour warehouse "with a vaguely
gypsy look" and Ernesto, our hero, a sixteen-year-old boy, a salesman
"". The subject of the discussion of the two protagonists concerns their
boss, but quickly deviates to more intimate revelations, on both sides.
We will then follow the path of a relationship that becomes very
intimate and privileged. A more physical and global passion for "the
man", while it quickly tires the kid. Not to mention the consequences
that such a relationship implies in a very regulated society, both in
terms of gender and social class. The story gets complicated as Ernesto
decides to put an end to this "bag of knots"[Editor's note: please
forgive me for this bad pun!]. But how can one not be offended or mean
to "the man", when one is like him, a naturally kind and accommodating boy?
The five episodes of this magnificent novel take us from twist to twist,
punctuated by the singular dialogues of often very endearing characters.
We can also enjoy a picturesque painting of Trieste at the time of the
reign of Emperor Francis Joseph (customs, political and social
concerns). The appendix reproduces a letter that Ernesto addressed to a
professor, a moving confession although partial!
Finally, in the postface, Maria Antonietta Grignani returns in detail to
the "birth" of Ernesto during the summer of 1953, supported by the
letters in which Umberto Saba, although very ill, reveals his intentions
concerning his novel, which he thought would never be published ...
Anarchism in the Eastern and Western Mediterranean
Anarchism in the Mediterranean (ed. Atelier de création libertaire), is
a work produced under the direction of Isabelle Felici and Costantino
Paonessa.
It brings together texts by researchers studying the history of
internationalism and anti-authoritarianism in the Eastern and Southern
Mediterranean between the second half of the 19th century and the First
World War, "which has long remained on the margins of historiography and
is only remembered from the social movements in this region between 2011
and 2020".
And this, "according to a transnational methodological approach common
to the different authors, leading to the overcoming of the "dictatorship
of the national" and the end of the distinction between political
migration and economic migration, in order to restore to the
Mediterranean the centrality that was its own from the end of the 19th
to the beginning of the 20th century, with more fluid borders than today"!
And that's not all: in these seven texts, Isabelle Felici and Costantino
Paonessa explain, "the choice was made to consider the feeling of
belonging from the point of view of the social history of ideas and the
notion of displacement, in the broadest sense, rather than that of
"movement", generally used".
Hence the title of the first part of the work "Displacements". Serena
Ganzarolli introduces a first notable figure, Amilcar Cipriani. A
"Garibaldian in the Mediterranean", whose ideological and political
evolution should not be limited to his participation in the Paris
Commune in 1871. On the contrary, we follow his journey, as he leaves
Rimini in 1859 at the age of 16, to participate in the Second Italian
War of Independence which will earn him a trial, alongside Carlo Cafiero
and Errico Malatesta (an episode developed further below). We find
Cipriani a deserter at the age of 20, exiled first in Alexandria, then
during his adventures in Greece (1862), while he fights for the
deposition of King Otto of Wittelsbach. The latter imposed by France,
Russia and England, at the end of a war against the Ottoman Empire.
The author then questions at length the reasons that pushed Cipriani to
embark for Greece, then Crete (1866), but above all looks at their
context under the Ottoman occupation.
All of this explains the evolution of Cipriani's internationalist ideas
and his participation in the Paris Commune, which will lead him to eight
years of deportation in New Caledonia until 1880, with the other
Communards condemned to exile.
But his story does not end there. It remains to be discovered his other
stay in Crete and his conflict with Malatesta (national liberation
struggles vs. anarchist internationalism). Very interesting.
Thomas Bleugniet takes up his pen again to tell us about the journey of
another Italian anarchist in the Mediterranean, at the end of the 19th
century: Florido Matteucci. His participation in the anarchist
international in 1876, through his periods of imprisonment in Naples,
Genoa and Florence. And his "romantic" itinerary as an underground
activist (like many Italians of the time), after his release from 1880
to 1885, between the great centers of anarchism in Italy, in Geneva,
Lugano, Marseille, Nice, Barcelona and Alexandria!
A good opportunity to learn a lot about the practices of surveillance
and administration of exile, commonly practiced at the time.
In "Places", the second part of the book, Weil Bahri addresses the
emergence between 1885 and 1921 of political groups (14) and trade union
organizations in Tunisia, in which many Italian anarchists operated
under the "Regency", in order to spread anti-authoritarian ideas and
practices. Rim Naguid then takes us to Alexandria in the 20th century,
and reconstructs in detail, "two episodes that were decisive for the
development of anarcho-syndicalist networks". The first in 1907, with
the arrest by the Egyptian police under Ottoman domination, of the
leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Movement of Odessa and two
sailors, on the occasion of the plot, organized by the Russian consulate
to request their extradition. A historical episode that will raise an
immense wave of solidarity, but let's not anticipate what comes next.
Let us just mention the rebellion in 1913, when three sailors from the
Black Sea Union were arrested on the orders of the Russian consulate.
The author then brilliantly develops the international, cosmopolitan and
transnational aspect of the two events, as well as the historical
context of Egypt, still an Ottoman province under British control at the
turn of the 20th century.
In the third part, "Points of view", Laura Galian deals with Spanish
anarchism and the question of Morocco, before and during the civil war
(1936/39), based on the speeches and positions taken by Spanish
anarchists, with regard to Morocco and Moroccans on internationalism and
colonialism. And this, since and in the face of the birth of the fantasy
of an Iberian reunion (Portugal/, Spain/Andorra), and of a close
economic and political collaboration with Morocco. The opportunity to
closely follow the evolution of Spanish anarchism in Morocco, between
immigration and workers' struggles. Anti-colonial insurrection attempts
in Morocco and explanation of why Republican troops did not encourage
Moroccan nationalism against Franco.
Focus on the representation of Moroccans in the anarchist press.
Comparative study of Italian anarchist communities on the roads of the
Mediterranean, in a "buzzing" Egypt and in a much calmer Tunisia.
In both cases, Giorgio Sacceti then specifies, "the conditioning of
human and social relationships ruined by situations and mentalities
polluted by colonialism persists, even for anarchists."
The latter then resumes the path of the previous chapters, starting with
the migrations of the anarchist activist Romolo Garbati, a political
exile wandering between Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. The latter also
having, like the other characters mentioned in the book, "explored, from
different angles, the links between personal dimension, local biography,
origin and international migratory path, at the time of the first phase
of the apogee of globalization that appeared at the end of the 19th
century, until the First World War." This tends to underline "the
prevalence of the notion of displacement rather than that of movement."
Notions that appear much clearer to us after reading.
In the afterword, Isabelle Felici and Constantino Paonessa explain the
idea and the birth of this book in 2020. The context, or how during the
covid episode and travel restrictions, the various authors managed to
send their texts to the two organizers of the work, thus allowing the
production of this work which will fascinate historians of the anarchist
movement (even if since its publication, some specialists have refuted
certain theses raised), but also people curious to discover its journey
in the Mediterranean regions.
Patrick Schindler, individual FA Athens
A stowaway who has not forgotten
https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8084
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
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A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Walks in homosexual slang. Classical Russia: The Nose by Nicolas Gogol
and Contemporary Russia: The Magus of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli.
Italy: Ernesto by Umberto Saba. And to finish, focus on Anarchism in the
Eastern and Western Mediterranean by Isabelle Felici and Costano
Paonessa. ---- ... "Let this refrain not remain with you: But where are
the snows of yesteryear?" ... ---- François Villon ---- The port of
Parga (Epirus), photo Patrick Schindler, 2024 ---- François Villon:
Walks in homosexual slang ---- François Villon, Walks in homosexual
slang (published by Mille et une nuits): a revealing little book on what
the certified censors tried to hide from us, while transforming François
Villon "into an unlucky being unjustly persecuted by everyone".! These
are indeed the words of Thierry Martin, the preface writer of this
little work who is keen to emphasize that contrary to the myth, "Villon
was a prankster and farter schoolboy"[note]!
Further on, Thierry Martin confirms that François Villon was indeed
homosexual: "He himself admits it in encrypted verses, found and studied
from 1884, of which we have mainly seen until now the apparent meaning,
intended to keep the uninitiated away." Thierry Martin then gives us a
"cash translation", suggestive and deciphered leaving no doubt on this
subject.
He then dwells on the difference between the slang of the coquillards,
that of the homosexual jobelins of Picardy of the 13th century and the
brief language of François Villon, "used by prostitutes to deceive the
police and clients." The latter obeying two rules: homosexuals of the
time (around 1460) were forbidden "not to sodomize an erect man and to
protect themselves by trying to disarm their opponent orally in order to
sodomize him"!
Here then: seven authenticated ballads by François Villon (with titles
that could not be more explicit: "Ballade des planters de culs",
"Ballade des emmanchés", etc.). The other four ballads being
"attributed", the first two to Villon and the last two, to his
homosexual friend and accomplice: Colin de Crayeux.
Excerpt from La balade des esquiveurs de bites!
On the left: in brief language and on the right in bold: contemporary
translation:
Many a coquillart horned by the save / More than one fucker dismasted by
this save
And dislodged from his ence or his poue / And deprived of his lever or
his member
(Beau de blunders, blandy of tawny tongue), / Unavailable for the
javelin, having been caressed by a treacherous tongue,
[He makes], at the ront, make the grims pout / Makes the grazers pluck
his perch a little
To square well so that it is not tied; / To re-bandage well so that it
is not threaded,
Couple your kings to beaulx-sire-dieus, / Couple your arrow to his priapus,
Or you will have the riffle in the cheek, / Otherwise you will have in
the mouth his stick,
Green rush, haven of the husband. / Its stiff stem refuge of the plowman.
In postface, before reminding us of the important dates of the life of
François Villon, Thierry Martin offers us a complete overview of
homosexuality at the time of François Villon before concluding: "As for
the hell promised to the sodomites, no one believed in it: the profane
theater, violently anticlerical, laughed at it as much as at
excommunication." Claro!
Nicolas Gogol: The nose
Nicolas Vassiliévitch Gogol was born in 1809 at the Vassilievka estate,
near Sorotchintsy, (located today in Ukraine). He is considered one of
the classic writers of Russian literature. He had a great influence on
Russian literature in the second half of the 19th century, notably on
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who is said to have said: "We all came out of
Gogol's Overcoat." His aura undoubtedly grew even more in the 20th
century. Mikhail Bulgakov was inspired by him for his masterpiece, The
Master and Margarita.
The preface to Gogol's Nose (ed. Allia, translated by the Russian Arthur
Larrue) gives us a little secret, which naturally is not to be revealed.
Let us instead allow ourselves to be led by Gogol to St. Petersburg in
the 1830s, "where there was little opportunity to laugh a lot." However,
in The Nose, there is a lot of laughter! So much so that it is not
surprising that this short story was rejected in 1834 by the editorial
board of L'Observateur moscovite, which was considered "dirty and
vulgar." It would actually only appear two years later, thanks to the
influence of Pushkin in The Contemporary.
Beginning of the plot: What is happening at the home of the drunken
barber, Ivan Yakovlevich? Where do these cries come from? Could it be
because while having breakfast, he found in his bread: a nose? If so,
was he so drunk the day before that he had inadvertently cut off the
nose of one of his customers with an unfortunate stroke of his razor? If
that is indeed the case, then his owner must be very annoyed at the
moment. And for good reason. But then, what to do? Get rid of him
discreetly? Suspense...
And while waiting for the ending, let us wander among colorful
characters and situations. This, for our greatest pleasure. Eternal Gogol!
Giuliano da Empoli: The Kremlin Mage
Giuliano da Empoli, born in 1973 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, is an
Italian-Swiss writer and political advisor.
In The Kremlin Magus (Folio), Vadim Baranov, nicknamed "the new
Rasputin" has just resigned from his position as advisor to the "Tsar",
meaning: Vladimir Putin... As a result, from eminence grise, he has just
been reduced to the status of a ghost. But for the moment, where can he
be hiding?
However, it turns out that it is not entirely by chance that the
narrator will succeed in finding him. The latter is doing passionate
research in Moscow on Evgueni Zamiatine, the "heretic" writer censored,
"as much by Tsar Nicholas II as by the Soviet regime". Having arrived at
Vadim Baranov's house under heavy guard, the latter receives the
narrator in his modest house under surveillance. It is there that he
hands him a rare document: a correspondence between Zamiatine and
Stalin, in which the former asks, in a direct style of the latter, for
permission to leave the USSR. And Baranov comments: "You are holding in
your hands one of the most beautiful supplications addressed by an
artist to Stalin. However, Zamyatin's problem was to have understood too
quickly what Sovietism was going to become and above all to have
committed the imprudence of writing it."
On this, Baranov begins to tell our narrator his whole story. It begins
with this sentence: "Power is like the sun and death, they cannot look
each other in the face." An image to show how three generations of his
family managed to slip through the net. His grandfather, at the time of
the "real Tsar"; his father "having almost managed to remain a good
communist until the decline of the regime" and finally, himself: a
student swimming in the electric Moscow of the 1990s, "where assumed
capitalism was going to take back the controls of the Sovietized country."
This is how we will go back through the last Tsarist years, then the
Soviet years, up to the end of the Yeltsin era and finally, the
twenty-five years of "sovereign democracy" under Putin.
We will then get to know the main actors in his entourage, all inspired
by the real protagonists, as well as his favorite concept: "the vertical
of power"! Baranov's comment: "This is how I too slipped into the new
regime with the naturalness of someone who had at least three centuries
of bowing and scraping in his blood." What follows is a real infernal
tango that begins with a flashback, where we see all the young wolves
dancing trying to take the place of the "old alcoholic bear", namely
Yeltsin.
Including, of course, the former KGB bureaucrat, Vladimir Putin, who
already sees himself as the "new Kalif in place of the Kalif"! And
that's when the famous Baranov will appear in his shadow, summoned to
the headquarters of the FSB (ex-KGB) who, a few days later, finds
himself in a French restaurant, face-to-face with Vladimir Putin who
hires him in order to "polish his image". And, we are only at the
beginning of the story. Will Baranov become Putin's "valet Matti" or
will it be the opposite? Magnificent portrait of an absolute power that
sends a chill down your spine!
NB: in the same vein, for people wondering about occultism in Russia, Le
Rat noir suggests you discover the astonishing document by Patrick
Maraloni, published in the Revue Basero (No. 2 & 3, éditions L'Echappée)
on telepathy in Tsarist Russia, then in the USSR until the 1930s.
Umberto Saba: Ernesto
Umberto Saba (pseudonym of Umberto Poli), was born on March 9, 1883 in
Trieste, then under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to a Jewish mother from
the Trieste ghetto and Ugo Edoardo Poli, a sales agent for a noble
Venetian family. When the First World War broke out, their son, Umberto
Saba, was called up for military service. It was during this period that
he discovered Friedrich Nietzsche. After the war, back in Trieste, he
began writing Canzoniere, became friends with Giacomo Debenedetti and
collaborated on the magazine Primo Tempo.
He participated in the literary world and gravitated in the spheres of
the magazine Solaria. Between 1929 and 1931, due to an intense nervous
crisis, he began an analysis with Edoardo Weiss (introducer of
psychoanalysis in Italy in 1932). It was then that critics discovered
Saba (as well as new young authors, Comisso, Penna, etc.) and began to
consider him a master.
In 1938, due to the "racial laws" put in place by Mussolini, Umberto
sold his bookstore and emigrated to Paris. He returned to Italy at the
end of 1939, first to Rome where Ungaretti tried in vain to help him,
then to Trieste, where he decided to face "the national tragedy" with
other Italians. On September 8, 1943, he was forced to flee with his
wife and daughter. He hid in Florence, changing apartments many times,
helped by the poet Eugenio Montale and Carlo Levi. After the war, Saba
stayed in Milan for ten years, returning episodically to Trieste.
Despite his two literary prizes, Saba remained distant from the
neo-realist milieu that fervently rediscovered him. His novelistic and
poetic work is resolutely autobiographical.
In the preface to Ernesto, (published by Seuil), the translator René de
Cecaty reveals the story of this posthumous autobiographical novel by
Umberto Saba, written in 1953, unfinished and only published in 1975,
thanks to the will of his daughter. It is a text of disturbing lucidity,
without concession, but not excluding a good dose of tenderness. The
preface writer then explains the translation difficulties due to the
Trieste dialect. Then, he gives us his interpretation of what decided
Saba (a married man and father) to make this kind of "late coming out"
about his first sexual experiences as a 16-year-old adolescent. Cecaty
also gives us a panorama of authors evoking the evolution of the
perception of homosexuality in European literature, from Oscar Wilde to
Marcel Proust and this, up to Jean Genet.
Ernesto. We are in Trieste in the very last years of the 19th century
under Austrian domination, while a dialogue is established between "the
man", an occasional laborer hired in a flour warehouse "with a vaguely
gypsy look" and Ernesto, our hero, a sixteen-year-old boy, a salesman
"". The subject of the discussion of the two protagonists concerns their
boss, but quickly deviates to more intimate revelations, on both sides.
We will then follow the path of a relationship that becomes very
intimate and privileged. A more physical and global passion for "the
man", while it quickly tires the kid. Not to mention the consequences
that such a relationship implies in a very regulated society, both in
terms of gender and social class. The story gets complicated as Ernesto
decides to put an end to this "bag of knots"[Editor's note: please
forgive me for this bad pun!]. But how can one not be offended or mean
to "the man", when one is like him, a naturally kind and accommodating boy?
The five episodes of this magnificent novel take us from twist to twist,
punctuated by the singular dialogues of often very endearing characters.
We can also enjoy a picturesque painting of Trieste at the time of the
reign of Emperor Francis Joseph (customs, political and social
concerns). The appendix reproduces a letter that Ernesto addressed to a
professor, a moving confession although partial!
Finally, in the postface, Maria Antonietta Grignani returns in detail to
the "birth" of Ernesto during the summer of 1953, supported by the
letters in which Umberto Saba, although very ill, reveals his intentions
concerning his novel, which he thought would never be published ...
Anarchism in the Eastern and Western Mediterranean
Anarchism in the Mediterranean (ed. Atelier de création libertaire), is
a work produced under the direction of Isabelle Felici and Costantino
Paonessa.
It brings together texts by researchers studying the history of
internationalism and anti-authoritarianism in the Eastern and Southern
Mediterranean between the second half of the 19th century and the First
World War, "which has long remained on the margins of historiography and
is only remembered from the social movements in this region between 2011
and 2020".
And this, "according to a transnational methodological approach common
to the different authors, leading to the overcoming of the "dictatorship
of the national" and the end of the distinction between political
migration and economic migration, in order to restore to the
Mediterranean the centrality that was its own from the end of the 19th
to the beginning of the 20th century, with more fluid borders than today"!
And that's not all: in these seven texts, Isabelle Felici and Costantino
Paonessa explain, "the choice was made to consider the feeling of
belonging from the point of view of the social history of ideas and the
notion of displacement, in the broadest sense, rather than that of
"movement", generally used".
Hence the title of the first part of the work "Displacements". Serena
Ganzarolli introduces a first notable figure, Amilcar Cipriani. A
"Garibaldian in the Mediterranean", whose ideological and political
evolution should not be limited to his participation in the Paris
Commune in 1871. On the contrary, we follow his journey, as he leaves
Rimini in 1859 at the age of 16, to participate in the Second Italian
War of Independence which will earn him a trial, alongside Carlo Cafiero
and Errico Malatesta (an episode developed further below). We find
Cipriani a deserter at the age of 20, exiled first in Alexandria, then
during his adventures in Greece (1862), while he fights for the
deposition of King Otto of Wittelsbach. The latter imposed by France,
Russia and England, at the end of a war against the Ottoman Empire.
The author then questions at length the reasons that pushed Cipriani to
embark for Greece, then Crete (1866), but above all looks at their
context under the Ottoman occupation.
All of this explains the evolution of Cipriani's internationalist ideas
and his participation in the Paris Commune, which will lead him to eight
years of deportation in New Caledonia until 1880, with the other
Communards condemned to exile.
But his story does not end there. It remains to be discovered his other
stay in Crete and his conflict with Malatesta (national liberation
struggles vs. anarchist internationalism). Very interesting.
Thomas Bleugniet takes up his pen again to tell us about the journey of
another Italian anarchist in the Mediterranean, at the end of the 19th
century: Florido Matteucci. His participation in the anarchist
international in 1876, through his periods of imprisonment in Naples,
Genoa and Florence. And his "romantic" itinerary as an underground
activist (like many Italians of the time), after his release from 1880
to 1885, between the great centers of anarchism in Italy, in Geneva,
Lugano, Marseille, Nice, Barcelona and Alexandria!
A good opportunity to learn a lot about the practices of surveillance
and administration of exile, commonly practiced at the time.
In "Places", the second part of the book, Weil Bahri addresses the
emergence between 1885 and 1921 of political groups (14) and trade union
organizations in Tunisia, in which many Italian anarchists operated
under the "Regency", in order to spread anti-authoritarian ideas and
practices. Rim Naguid then takes us to Alexandria in the 20th century,
and reconstructs in detail, "two episodes that were decisive for the
development of anarcho-syndicalist networks". The first in 1907, with
the arrest by the Egyptian police under Ottoman domination, of the
leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Movement of Odessa and two
sailors, on the occasion of the plot, organized by the Russian consulate
to request their extradition. A historical episode that will raise an
immense wave of solidarity, but let's not anticipate what comes next.
Let us just mention the rebellion in 1913, when three sailors from the
Black Sea Union were arrested on the orders of the Russian consulate.
The author then brilliantly develops the international, cosmopolitan and
transnational aspect of the two events, as well as the historical
context of Egypt, still an Ottoman province under British control at the
turn of the 20th century.
In the third part, "Points of view", Laura Galian deals with Spanish
anarchism and the question of Morocco, before and during the civil war
(1936/39), based on the speeches and positions taken by Spanish
anarchists, with regard to Morocco and Moroccans on internationalism and
colonialism. And this, since and in the face of the birth of the fantasy
of an Iberian reunion (Portugal/, Spain/Andorra), and of a close
economic and political collaboration with Morocco. The opportunity to
closely follow the evolution of Spanish anarchism in Morocco, between
immigration and workers' struggles. Anti-colonial insurrection attempts
in Morocco and explanation of why Republican troops did not encourage
Moroccan nationalism against Franco.
Focus on the representation of Moroccans in the anarchist press.
Comparative study of Italian anarchist communities on the roads of the
Mediterranean, in a "buzzing" Egypt and in a much calmer Tunisia.
In both cases, Giorgio Sacceti then specifies, "the conditioning of
human and social relationships ruined by situations and mentalities
polluted by colonialism persists, even for anarchists."
The latter then resumes the path of the previous chapters, starting with
the migrations of the anarchist activist Romolo Garbati, a political
exile wandering between Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. The latter also
having, like the other characters mentioned in the book, "explored, from
different angles, the links between personal dimension, local biography,
origin and international migratory path, at the time of the first phase
of the apogee of globalization that appeared at the end of the 19th
century, until the First World War." This tends to underline "the
prevalence of the notion of displacement rather than that of movement."
Notions that appear much clearer to us after reading.
In the afterword, Isabelle Felici and Constantino Paonessa explain the
idea and the birth of this book in 2020. The context, or how during the
covid episode and travel restrictions, the various authors managed to
send their texts to the two organizers of the work, thus allowing the
production of this work which will fascinate historians of the anarchist
movement (even if since its publication, some specialists have refuted
certain theses raised), but also people curious to discover its journey
in the Mediterranean regions.
Patrick Schindler, individual FA Athens
A stowaway who has not forgotten
https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8084
_________________________________________
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