PHAIDRA – Collezioni digitali

This volume investigates some of the ways in which literature makes use of architecture by exploring buildings, constructing spaces, and configuring structural scaffoldings in narratives. With focus on literary texts from the Nordic countries, the contributions explore themes, authors, and genres from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age along three main axes of research. The first section (“Case di carta”) investigates stories that revolve around specific buildings or architectural elements, such as Strasbourg Cathedral in Jens Baggesen’s Labyrinten (1792‑93), the connection between psyche and real or metaphorical architectures in August Strindberg’s Taklagsöl (1906) and Lars Gustafsson’s En kakelsättares eftermiddag (1991), the tension between tradition (peat houses) and modernity (concrete buildings) in Halldór Laxness’s Sjálfstætt fólk (1934‑35), architectural space as social space in Bjarte Breiteig’s urban novel Tøyeneffekten (2021). The second theme (“Castelli in aria”) involves both natural and metaphysical dimensions, such as the construction of sacred spaces by drawing on mystical models in Nitida saga, celestial structures modelled on terrestrial experience in Emanuel Swedenborg’s visions – a source of inspiration for Strindberg’s Inferno (1897) and Ockulta dagboken (1896‑1908) – and the reflection on subjectivity that takes its cue from a corner of nature in Søren Kierkegaard’s writings.
The third axis (“Fucine di parole”) explores structural elements in literary genres, involving the debate on the Icelandic sagas, as in the case studies devoted to narrative structure in Finnboga saga ramma or the topos of the feasting hall in Egils saga einhenda and Kjalnesinga saga. It also takes into account the role of the city of Babylon in some versions of the medieval chivalric poem Floire et Blancheflor as well as dystopian perspectives in Niklas Natt och Dag’s historical crime novel 1793 (2017).

Sommario:

CASE DI CARTA, CASTELLI IN ARIA, FUCINE DI PAROLE ARCHITETTURE NELLE LINGUE E LETTERATURE NORDICHE
a cura di Andrea Meregalli, Camilla Storskog, Francesca Turri

Introduzione
Case di carta, castelli in aria, fucine di parole
Andrea Meregalli, Camilla Storskog

Testi screditati, testi accantonati. Per una rilettura delle saghe degli islandesi ‘post-classiche’ o ‘recenziori’
Martina Ceolin

I Dovregubbens Hall. Le sale dei giganti come esempi di pastiche nelle saghe nordiche
Ruben Gavilli

Microcosmic Architectures as Catalysts for Macrocosmic Visions
A Study of Nitida saga
Michael Micci

Mit a golfuith staar een hæst. La descrizione di Babilonia negli adattamenti scandinavi di Floire et Blancheflor
Erika Dell’Aquila

Swedenborg: architetture di un visionario
Franco Perrelli

«È il Re Lear, in pietra». Jens Baggesen davanti alla Cattedrale di Nostra Signora di Strasburgo
Sara Severini

All’Angolo degli otto sentieri: Søren Kierkegaard come ‘architetto del pensiero’
Giulia Longo

Taklagsöl di August Strindberg e En kakelsättares eftermiddag di Lars Gustafsson
Edifici in costruzione e identità in decostruzione
Maria Cristina Lombardi

«Il mostro di cemento a fauci spalancate». Halldór Laxness e l’impatto della steinsteypa nelle campagne islandesi
Silvia Cosimini, Sofia Nannini

1793. Realismo distopico nella Stoccolma di Niklas Natt och Dag
Emilio Calvani

Mutamento di Tøyen e sintomi di gentrificazione in Tøyeneffekten di Bjarte Breiteig
Edoardo Checcucci