A look at posthumous Montale: La casa di Olgiate

Abstract

This tribute would like to solve some interpretation problems which come from La casa di Olgiate, the most cogent poem of the unrealised collection by Montale, published in 2006 by Renzo Cremante and Gianfranca Lavezzi. Starting from the main themes of the poetry («mirror», «tiger», «goldfinch», «ginger lily»), we have tried to follow their evolution in the poems published while Eugenio Montale was alive and of which he authorised the publication. The paths among the ruined «houses» of Montale's poetry and the «mirrors» of his production - which usually disclose an absence and are placed in laidies' rooms - have permitted to add a small tile to the complicated puzzle of the life the Ligurian poet, in which the images can have different meaning from time to time during their evolution.

Camilla Da Prato
camilladaprato@libero.it
Università di Pisa – Dipartimento di Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica