La Galizia di Joseph Roth. Per una geocritica dello spazio

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the consequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, the European space has unfolded revealing a face that has remained hidden for decades. We are witnessing a redefinition and negotiation of spaces that return to being "central" and present, widening the visual cone of the European continent. Following these political and social upheavals, forgotten and darkened areas return to be observed. This research deals with one of these, Galicia, a land that has appeared and disappeared several times in history, which is still approached by authors of essays and articles who never cease to question that geographical space as a viaticum for a never-ending search for matrices and identity recognition. The gaze will start from a particular moment in the European history: the period between the two world wars. Will focus in particular on part of the production of an author, Joseph Roth, who comes from those lands, in order to try to relate the perception that he himself had, with a broader reasoning on the evocative and productive potential of an area that does not cease to generate narration and narratives even today. This research aims to reflect on the perception of space and 'mental landscapes' in Joseph Roth’s travel reportage from border territories, in particular those written for the “Frankfurter Zeitung” from Galicia and southern France. The subjective point of view of the author will be investigated in relation to the real topography and literary representation of the spaces. Several studies have made possible to define the methodological premises with which the research was conducted: in the light of what Bertrand Westphal defines a 'space-time revolution' and starting from a geopoetic approach, focused on the relationship between perception and construction of geographical spaces in the literary sphere, and a geocritical one, which also confronts the impact of time on the perception of space, the multiformity of human spaces will be highlighted, the representation of which is inevitably complex. The relationship between the various components analyzed intends to test the ability to offer a new definition of the concept of space itself by inserting it into the broader field of studies. That are related to what is called spatial turn, which investigate the nature and relationships that exist between space, place and time in the literary, historical, sociological, philosophical and geographical fields. The analysis carried out of the historical region of Galicia and its spatial representations starting from Roth’s travel reportages of the early twentieth century will be related to subsequent texts that have as their object similar themes. From Roth to Pollack, from Dohrn to Andruchovyč and Stasiuk, passing through Gauß, the personal itinerary of these further authors crosses individual sensitivities and cultural productions in a process of construction and reconstruction of belonging. What we intend to focus on, is a procedure intended to restore the rich articulation of sources and experiences starting from an identified space and returning to it after having enriched it not only by the multiplication of disciplinary points of view but also by a generative process of knowledge, never terminable. The object of the research is to understand to what extent it is possible to read through the descriptions of spaces an analysis of time, and in particular of Central-Eastern European space, in an attempt to trace a genealogy of visions and find a system of relationship between map, its representation, itineraries, narratives and the mind.