THE SPLINTERS OF HISTORY: GLIMMERS IN GIOVANNI RABONI’S POETRY

Abstract

The collection Barlumi di storia by Giovanni Raboni appears linked, since the title, with a private and collective history. However, it is a story that does not present itself as immediately readable, everything is seen in filigree, by flashes, in a Benjaminian perspective. The spaces are questioned and, in the light of existence, the splinters of historical facts penetrate the flesh of the poem, transfigured through the poetic word. This procedure has been evident since the beginning of its trajectory, also in the field of publishing and its performance in two important magazines aut aut and Questo e altro. The objective of this work is to trace a path in Raboni's poetry, putting these editorial experiences in dialogue with the indicated collection. Specifically, the poem “Ogni Tanto Succede” will be analyzed, in which the poet's gaze crosses piazza Fontana, famous for being the stage of the attack on the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (December 12, 1969), an event that commence a time of terrorism in Italy. It is through the description of the square that the poet can talk about the historical event, which echoes throughout the poem, without it being properly named. History appears in the shadow, in the absent, in the folds of experience. In order to investigate this relationship between history, memory and the poetic word in Raboni, we will seek for a specific dialogue with the poet Gianni D’Elia, with whom he shares a vision of poetry that cannot abstain itself from its social and political role.