"Kicked off Somewhere': on "Lunario", interpolation and the gag

Abstract

The work aims to re-read Lunario del paradiso through the essay Su Beckett, l'interpololazione e il gag, included in Finzioni occidentali (1975). Comparing the comic techniques adopted in Beckett's writing and slapstick comedy (i.e. the themes of permutation and expulsion, the idea of "wandering") with those adopted by Celati in Lunario, we will try to show how the novel constitutes its extreme attempt to transform the written page into a sort of mimicry performance. An attempt that, if on one hand it can be considered "failed", on the other it opens up Celati's writing to new perspectives.