Chapter 32 - Borges and Italy

Summary

Marco Polo, Petrarch, Tasso, Croce interested Borges, however Dante sat at the very highest pinnacle in his map of world literature and permeates his works. Italy took to Borges with intense enthusiasm, starting in the mid-1950s, earlier than in most countries. Following his death, a pivotal point came in 1998 when the rights to his entire oeuvre were acquired by the publishind house, Adelphi. Many highly important writers absorbed Borgesian elements, with Calvino, Sciascia, and Eco standing out. The case of Eco as a Borges avatar is compelling. Sciascia drew out hidden political and historical aspects in Borges’s work. Borges exercise influence on Italian fantastic literature both before and after his death. And the adaptation of ’Theme of the Traitor and the Hero’ by Bertolucci in ’The Spider’s Stratagem’ is an example of the astonishing energy Borges gave to two generations and more of Italian literature and culture.