Anatomy of the “Bruce”. Truth and Fiction in Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia
Abstract
Taking into account In Patagonia (1977) and the critical debate around it, this paper analyses how Bruce Chatwin changed the literary representation of places, undermining the traditional dichotomy between “truth” and “fiction”, and why the poetics of “Chatwinesque”—a term coined by his editor Susannah Clapp—became paradigmatic for contemporary non-fiction narrative.
Downloads
References
Barthes, Roland, L’Empire des signes (1970), trad. it. L’impero dei segni, Torino, Einaudi, 1984.
Bayer, Osvaldo. La Patagonia Rebelde (1972-1975), Buenos Aires, Planeta, 1980.
Borm, Jan, “Defining Travel: On the Travel Book, Travel Writing and Terminology”, Perspectives on Travel Writing, Eds. Glenn Hooper, Tim Youngs, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004: 13-26.
Borges, Jorge Luis, “L’avvicinamento ad Almotasim” (1935), Storia dell’eternità, Milano, Adelphi, 1995: 115-123.
Borges, Jorge Luis, “El Acercamiento a Almotásim” [1935], Obras completas, Buenos Aires, Emecé, 1996, I: 414-418.
Byron, Robert, The Road to Oxiana (1937), trad. it. La via per l’Oxiana, Milano, Adelphi, 1993.
Cabañas, Miguel A., “Traveling Lies: Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia and Adrián Giménez Hutton La Patagonia de Chatwin”, Politics, Identity, and Mobility in Travel Writing, Eds. Miguel A. Cabañas, Jeanne Dubino - Veronica Salles-Reese - Gary Totten, London, Routledge, 2015: 26-41.
Calasso, Roberto (ed.), Sentieri tortuosi. Bruce Chatwin fotografo, Milano, Adelphi, 1998.
Chatwin, Bruce, In Patagonia (1977), trad. it. In Patagonia, Milano, Adelphi, 1982.
Id., A Lament for Afghanistan (1981), What Am I Doing Here, London, Cape, 1989: 286-293.
Id., What Am I Doing Here, London, Cape, 1989.
Id., Photographs and Notebooks, Eds. David King - Francis Wyndham, London, Cape, 1993.
Id., The Road to the Isles (1974), Anatomy of Restlessness, Eds. Jan Borm - Matthew Graves, London, Cape, 1996.
Id., “I Always Wanted to Go to Patagonia” (1983), Anatomy of Restlessness, trad. it. Anatomia dell’irrequietezza, Milano, Adelphi, 1996.
Id., Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin, Eds. Elizabeth Chatwin - Nicholas Shakespeare, London, Cape, 2010.
Chatwin, Bruce - Theroux, Paul, Patagonia Revisited, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1986.
Chatwin, Jonathan, Anywhere Out of the World: The Work of Bruce Chatwin, Manchester, Manchester UP, 2012.
Clapp, Susannah, With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer, London, Cape, 1997.
Clapp, Susannah, Con Chatwin, trad. it. di Matteo Codignola, Milano, Adelphi, 1998.
De Cristofaro, Francesco, “«Errante radice». Chatwin mitologo e mitomane”, Storie del grande Sud, Ed. Emilia Di Rocco, Bologna, il Mulino, 2017: 345-364.
Enzensberger, Hans Magnus, “Much Left Unsaid”, Times Literary Supplement, 16/6/1989: 657.
Featherstone, Kerry, Bruce Chatwin, Liverpool, Liverpool UP, 2007.
Fussell, Paul, Abroad: British Literary Travelling Between the Wars, New York, Oxford University Press, 1980.
Giménez Hutton, Adrián, La Patagonia de Chatwin, Buenos Aires, Sudamericana, 1999.
Giménez Hutton, Adrián, Chatwin in Patagonia. Roma, Nutrimenti, 2015.
Gnoli, Antonio, Chatwin, Bruce, La nostalgia dello spazio, Milano, Bompiani, 2000.
Ignatieff, Michael (ed.), “An Interview with Bruce Chatwin”, Granta, 21 (1987): 23-37.
Korte, Barbara, English Travel Writing from Pilgrimages to Postcolonial Explorations, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 2000.
Magris, Claudio, Un altro mare, Milano, Garzanti, 1991.
Marenco, Franco, “Fine dei viaggi?”, Il viaggio nella letteratura occidentale tra mito e simbolo, Eds. Antonio Gargano - Marisa Squillante, Napoli, Liguori, 2005: 193-205.
Marfè, Luigi, “Chatwinesque, or Travel Writing as a Narrative Genre”, Arcadia. Internationale Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft /International Journal for Literary Studies, XLVI. 2: 444-453.
Mayer, Ruth, “The Things of Civilization, the Matters of Empire: Representing Jemmy Button”, New Literary History, 39. 2 (2008): 193-215.
Meanor, Patrick, Bruce Chatwin, New York, Twayne, 1997.
Murray, Nicholas, Bruce Chatwin, Bridgend, Seren Books, 1993.
Pfister, Manfred, “Bruce Chatwin and the Postmodernization of the Travelogue”, Literature Interpretation History, VII. 2-3 (1996): 253-267.
Ricœur, Paul, Temps et récit, Paris, Seuil, 1983-1985, 3 voll.
Rushdie, Salman, “Travelling with Chatwin”, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991, London, Granta, 1991a: 232-236.
Id., Patrie immaginarie, Milano, Mondadori, 1991b.
Sebald, Winfried Georg, “Das Geheimnis des rotbraunen Fells. Annäherungan Bruce Chatwin”, Literaturen, 11 (2000): 72-75.
Shakespeare, Nicholas, Bruce Chatwin (1999), trad. it. Bruce Chatwin, Milano, Baldini-Castoldi, 2001.
Sugnet, Charles, “Vile Bodies, Vile Places: Travelling with Granta”, Transition, 51 (1991): 70-85.
Steinbeck, John, Travels with Charley: In Search of America, New York, Viking Press, 1962.
Stewart, Iain A.D., “The Sincerest form of Flattery: A Note on Bruce Chatwin’s The Estate of Maximilian Tod as an Imitation of Borges”, The Modern Language Review, 963 (2001): 723-731.
Taylor, David, “Bruce Chatwin: Connoisseur of Exile, Exile as Connoisseur”, Travel Writing and Empire: Postcolonial Theory in Transit, Ed. Steve Clark, London, Zed Books, 1999: 195-211.
Theroux, Paul, “Chatwin Revisited”, Chatwin - Theroux, Nowhere is a Place: Travels in Patagonia, Vancouver-Toronto, McIntyre 1992: 11-17.
Thompson, Carl (ed.), The Routldege Companion to Travel Writing, London, Routledge, 2015.
Turi, Nicola,“Bruce Chatwin. L'alternativa nomade e l'arte come forma di possesso”, Letteratura e fotografia, Ed. Anna Dolfi, Roma, Bulzoni, 2005, II: 271-304.
Urbain, Jean Didier, Secrets de voyage: menteurs, imposteurs et autres voyageurs invisibles, Paris, Payot, 1998.
Westphal, Bertrand, La Géocritique. Réel, fiction, espace, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 2007.
Wyndham, Francis, “Introduction”, Chatwin 1993: 10-13.
Youngs, Tim, “Punctuating Travel: Paul Theroux and Bruce Chatwin”, Literature& History, 6. 2 (1997): 73-88.
Zanotti, Paolo, “Come prendere Stevenson per il verso giusto e vivere da eroi romantici”, Paragone: Letteratura, 576-586 (1998): 3-34.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).