Punti compatti di un paesaggio genetico: gli asterischi nella poesia di Andrea Zanzotto e Paul Celan

Abstract

The paper intends to investigate the material dimension and the poietic-aesthetic value of the asterisk in the poetic works of Andrea Zanzotto and Paul Celan. Drawing from the Adornoian concept of apparition and taking into consideration both Peter Waterhuse’s reflection on the Genesis-Gelände and Roland Barthes’ writings on Japanese haiku, the investigation demonstrates how this sign transcends its two-dimensional typographic form. Within this process, it acquires the concreteness of plants and minerals (and of the natural world tout court), thus activating a poetics of the fragment that drives the morphogenesis of a Sprachlandschaft, which, although fragmentary, still proves capable of resisting the catastrophic human history.