I find myself interested in Shelley’s framing of Italy as
this place of consuming celestial fire. Once again, we see here this idea of
the cities of Italy as a place where an almost holy transcendence of
inspiration and art occurs—hearkening not just to the beauty of art, but to
figures such as Apollo. The cities and geography of Italy are painted in
precious jewels and metals, lending it a sense of pricelessness, but also a sense
of unreality. Once again, where are the actual people of Italy? I doubt when I
make my visit to Venice I’ll be witnessing actual walls made of sapphire and
gold.
And as for Browning, he frames Italy as this place of
Romantic entanglement, where two spirits connect, and there's this attempt to escape the bodily, but even as he tries to escape the bodily presence, he's anchored and mired in it. There's a lot of sexual imagery, this binary of Rome as "ghost," in "heaven," watching the two lovers. Oddly voyeuristic despite its attempts at divine atmosphere. Binaries of barrenness and fertility (Rome and May), spirituality and bodily, female and male. This is all about fleetingness, impermanence, yet we're set in this place that's been around almost as long as history.
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