IL MIO LIBRO PIU' CARO E PIU' IMPORTANTE. "L'OCCHIO SIMILE AL SOLE", ROMANZO INEDITO DI LUIGI FALLACARA. EDIZIONE CRITICA

This thesis offers a critical review of the unpublished novel by Luigi Fallacara (Bari 1890, Firenze 1963), L’occhio simile al sole, which the author believed to be «his dearest and most important book». According to the available documents, the book was written from 1945 to 1954, during the author's hiatus from the creation of poetry. The large volume of notes produced by Fallacara as he tirelessly revised his work over and over, described in detail in this thesis, are stored in three Archives: the archive of “Catholic literature and writer researches” at the Universita Cattolica in Milano, the Institute for manuscripts in Pavia and the poet's private Archives in Florence. This work reconstructs all phases of the creative process, identifying the two sets of chapters (Ms1 and Ms2) within one single manuscript, each of which represents a distinct drafting phases. By analysing the voluminous genetic materials as well as the unpublished documents, this work identifies the various themes and interpretative lines in the text, from the neoplatonic-dantesque lief motif to solar symbolism, from the relationship between writing and painting to autobiographical implications, from the mystical-Franciscan elements to the suggestions that emanate from Montale and Beethoven. Finally, alongside the updated bibliography for the author, the iconographic section collects certain paintings by Fallacara, which are poignantly analogous to those described in the novel.