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6. ‘To Die Is Not Enough!’: Hemingway and D’Annunzio

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The Italian in Modernity
This chapter is in the book The Italian in Modernity
chapter 6‘To Die Is Not Enough!’ Hemingway and D’Annunziojohn paul russoMorire non basta.– D’AnnunzioGiven the historical legacy of particularism, no one city epitomizes Italy in modernity, though Venice probably comes closer than any other in the popular imagination. It has been ‘painted and described many thou-sands of times,’ said Henry James, ‘and of all the cities of the world is the easiest to visit without going there.’1 Or, as one would say, it is the world’s most ‘virtual’ city. With its wealth of historical, literary, artistic, and politi-cal associations, unique urbanism and architecture, contrary myths and polarities of East and West, deeply engrained and often contradictory stereotypes, putative autochthonous identity, and not least, mingling of strangeness and familiarity, Venice has thwarted the attempts of all but a few writers to deploy and shape their Venetian materials into an original vision. On the contrary: in a study of thick intertextuality Rosella Mamoli Zorzi writes that most nineteenth-century travellers brought their own readings of a ‘totally dead’ Venice so that ‘the energy of the real city [the politics of 1848, struggles against bad restoration, etc.] is not sufficient to break through the assumed perception of its beauty.’2 There were notable exceptions. ‘To avoid trite and clichéd descriptions’ of Venice in Pictures from Italy, Dickens fractured the stereotypes by portraying his own visit in the form of a dream, ‘a series of juxtaposed images, immersed in silence, using the visual process typical of dreams’; ‘this technique seems also to underline the lack of reality of the object which is being represented.’3 His dream was the cultural archetype of nineteenth-century Venice.
© 2016 University of Toronto Press, Toronto

chapter 6‘To Die Is Not Enough!’ Hemingway and D’Annunziojohn paul russoMorire non basta.– D’AnnunzioGiven the historical legacy of particularism, no one city epitomizes Italy in modernity, though Venice probably comes closer than any other in the popular imagination. It has been ‘painted and described many thou-sands of times,’ said Henry James, ‘and of all the cities of the world is the easiest to visit without going there.’1 Or, as one would say, it is the world’s most ‘virtual’ city. With its wealth of historical, literary, artistic, and politi-cal associations, unique urbanism and architecture, contrary myths and polarities of East and West, deeply engrained and often contradictory stereotypes, putative autochthonous identity, and not least, mingling of strangeness and familiarity, Venice has thwarted the attempts of all but a few writers to deploy and shape their Venetian materials into an original vision. On the contrary: in a study of thick intertextuality Rosella Mamoli Zorzi writes that most nineteenth-century travellers brought their own readings of a ‘totally dead’ Venice so that ‘the energy of the real city [the politics of 1848, struggles against bad restoration, etc.] is not sufficient to break through the assumed perception of its beauty.’2 There were notable exceptions. ‘To avoid trite and clichéd descriptions’ of Venice in Pictures from Italy, Dickens fractured the stereotypes by portraying his own visit in the form of a dream, ‘a series of juxtaposed images, immersed in silence, using the visual process typical of dreams’; ‘this technique seems also to underline the lack of reality of the object which is being represented.’3 His dream was the cultural archetype of nineteenth-century Venice.
© 2016 University of Toronto Press, Toronto

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. 1. Stendhal and Italy 1
  5. 2. The Unbroken Charm: New Englanders in Italy 182
  6. 3. Isle of the Dead 251
  7. 4. From Italophilia to Italophobia: Italian Americans in the Gilded Age 329
  8. 5. Puccini’s American Theme 361
  9. 6. ‘To Die Is Not Enough!’: Hemingway and D’Annunzio 393
  10. 7. The Hidden Godfather: Plenitude and Absence in Coppola’s Trilogy 434
  11. 8. The Representation of Italian Americans in American Cinema: From the Silent Film to The Godfather 493
  12. Notes 641
  13. Index Across 841
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442687073-007

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. 1. Stendhal and Italy 1
  5. 2. The Unbroken Charm: New Englanders in Italy 182
  6. 3. Isle of the Dead 251
  7. 4. From Italophilia to Italophobia: Italian Americans in the Gilded Age 329
  8. 5. Puccini’s American Theme 361
  9. 6. ‘To Die Is Not Enough!’: Hemingway and D’Annunzio 393
  10. 7. The Hidden Godfather: Plenitude and Absence in Coppola’s Trilogy 434
  11. 8. The Representation of Italian Americans in American Cinema: From the Silent Film to The Godfather 493
  12. Notes 641
  13. Index Across 841
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