(photo by Mary Serritiello-July 2010)
EX ISTRIAN
SOURCE: COURIER VENETO.IT
Zecchi "Istrian Exiles,
a forgotten story" The philosopher
Venetian missed are the storytellers
The Italians did not understand what was the dramatic exodus Julian-Dalmatian. After removing it for years, now consider it less a fact. " Stefano Zecchi, journalist, writer and professor of aesthetics in Milan, born in Venice 66 years ago, speaks with disappointment suffered on the eve of Remembrance Day, the tragedy of the sinkholes and their exodus from the lands of Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia. He, who in his latest novel When her heart was beating (Mondadori, pp. 216), said just the desperate flight of a father and son from Pula bloody 1947, we hear that the country has not yet metabolized that terrible trauma.
How do you explain this, Professor? "Many have made the realpolitik. At first, when there were still Nazis in Europe, the Western powers did not want to fight Tito and Churchill. Then the problem became Italian, because you had to somehow pay the price of defeat. In that climate the Christian Democrats and the Communist Party found themselves sharing the same line: Togliatti called for the annexation of Trieste and the Democrats were not much opposition to this choice. So in '48, after Stalin has denounced Tito, it has become a partner of the Western powers. And it was the end. " Only
inlay policy, then? "Unfortunately not. Behind the Italian distrust for the tragedy of exile is also a cultural issue. I mean that the resistance can rely on history books very beautiful, the drama of the Julian-Dalmatian no. The Resistance has become a symbolic-mythical place in our history thanks to the great narrative of the various Bassani, Cassola, Vittorini, Pavese. Why is the great fiction that goes into people's hearts. The story of the exiles, however, is the first of this drama. "
E’ per questo che lei ha voluto ambientare il suo ultimo romanzo proprio nella Pola del dopoguerra? «Sia chiaro, non voglio paragonarmi agli autori che ho appena citato; ma l’intenzione era appunto quella di trasmettere i veri sentimenti della tragedia».
«Quando ci batteva forte il cuore» si apre nel ’43 e si conclude con l’annessione jugoslava del febbraio ’47. E racconta la vicenda di papà Flavio e del figlio Sergio, in fuga da Pola. Quale filo collega la «grande» storia con la storia «privata»? «Una parola: rimozione. Ho iniziato il libro con l’obiettivo di testimoniare il concetto di rimozione del ruolo paterno nella società moderna. Perché ormai i padri are gone, no longer count. So for a direct suggestion, I was reminded of the macro-removal of the tragedy of the exiles. A removal from the books of history and our identity. That's why I put the two things together. And the effect seems to have succeeded. "
How did he paint so vividly the tragedy of the exiles? "I fished in my memory. My maternal grandmother was a Jew from Trieste. And many things I had told her. But not only. I myself have been witness to the tragedy. I was 6-7 years in the Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice, the ferries that arrive unloaded all those poor people. I remember how they were welcomed exiles to spitting and hissing, they were considered fascists. And I remember the kids to school with the sign "refugee" narrow neck. We then hosted in the house even a lady and her baby. For this it is impossible for me to forget. "
John Viafora
RIVER CITY 'MY MOTHER'S YOUNG
River (1)
River,
my mother's maiden
my father's groom
profit
border of happiness and teenager . The cross
life and my grandparents
war.
From here the ship leaves the port
and still looking. Maria
Serritiello
River ,18-7-2010
