L’inchiostro delle emozioni. Brodskij e le diverse espressioni del trauma

Abstract

Joseph Brodsky experienced the trauma of forced emigration in 1972 and, even before that, had to face imprisonment in Soviet psychiatric hospitals, persecution, isolation in the village of Norenskaya, intellectual and social marginalization due to his Jewish origins, and much more. This contribution attempts to weave together, through various sources, including the interview with Solomon Volkov, the autobiographical essay In a Room and a Half and some childhood memories, in an effort to analyse Brodsky’s way of narrating those events – sometimes reframing them as positive experiences, sometimes reworking them across different times, spaces, and languages. Finally, some brief reflections will concern the Italian translation of the analyzed passages.