Attraversamento di sottospazi simbolici: esempi di letteratura italiana sulla pandemia di Covid-19

Abstract

Starting from the consideration that the Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to a new relationship between private and public space, the article focuses on two novels written in Italy which centre on the Covid-19 pandemic and in particular the first lockdown: Massimo Gramellini’s C’era una volta adesso (2020) e Giuseppe Genna’s Reality (2020). Through the concept of “literary space” theorised by Jurij Lotman, the article will establish how the texts examined allow for a crossing between different symbolic subspaces: if C’era una volta adesso focuses on the protagonist’s private space, which nevertheless later takes on a political significance, Reality tends towards the disappearance of the narrator-protagonist, who becomes an “eye” turned outwards, capable of crossing the tabooed spaces of the pandemic.