I nomi di una vita

Abstract

We are identified not only by our names; the same applies to the characters of a short story or a novel. It is the whole set of names in the memory, and all the relative onomastic indications that bring back to us events, places and sensations, helping us to recreate the itinerary of our life, and even our appearance. Everybody has onomastic knowledge, in the sense of a collection of voices and images which the syllables of the name help to define, a group of existences which accompany him and speak him incessantly. For example, in Luigi Meneghello’s autobiographical work, names play different roles: they define a landscape, fix the image of a person met during the childhood, create lists which suggest how to interact with history, become the occasion to deny rethorical excess, help to experience the epic energy of classic works. From Libera nos a Malo to Fiori Italiani, from I piccoli maestri to Pomo pero, from Jura’s theoretical reflections to the Carte, Meneghello presents an extraordinary stage onto which he summons in ghostly procession, all the many people and events that constitute his past.