Las der “Gattopardo” Theodor Fontane?

Abstract

Straipsnis skirtas Džiuzepės Tomazio di Lampedūzos (Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa) romano „Il Gattopardo“ ir Theodoro Fontanes romano „Der Stechlin“ veikiančių asmenų analizei ir palyginimui. Straipsnyje keliamas klausimas, ar Džiuzepė Tomazio di Lampedūza skaitė Th. Fontanės romaną, ir kokią įtaką galėjo daryti šis romanas jo kūrybai. Autorius daro išvadą, kad abiejų romanų tiek pagrindiniai, tiek šalutiniai veikėjai, o taip pat ir visa figūrų konsteliacija labai panašūs. Tai leidžia manyti, kad italų rašytojas buvo susipažinęs su vokiečių rašytojo Th. Fontanės kūryba ir gal būt skaitė jo žymųjį romaną „Der Stechlin“, nes abiejų romanų pagrindinės mintys yra identiškos. Did “the Gattopardo” alias Tomasi di Lampedusa read Theodor Fontane? The question mentioned seems a little bit strange. Who are the protagonists in Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel “The Gattopardo” and in Fontane’s “Stechlin”? The answer: Liberal provincial aristocrats of the 19th century. What is the plot about? Their successors get engaged and eventually marry their fiancées and the old counts die. The main characters of both novels are very similar: Don Fabrizio Salina and Dubslav von Stechlin, the counts; Tancredi and Woldemar, the officers and grooms; Angelica and Armgard, the brides; Pater Pirrone and Pastor Lorenzen, the priests; Don Ciccio Tumeo and Krippenstapel, the “court jesters” who reveal the truth to her masters. Even the antagonists are similar: Don Calogero and Gundermann, bourgeois, nationalists and successful businessmen. Did Tomasi di Lampedusa read Fontane’s “Stechlin” and draw his inspiration from that novel? Sicily is far away from Brandenburg, but looking at Tomasi’s biography will prove most useful. He was obsessed with reading and thus acquired a vast knowledge in European Literature. The “Meridiani” edition of his works contains 1900 pages. Over 1300 pages deal with English and French Literature. He complained about the fact that it was difficult to get foreign language books in Palermo after World War II. His wife was the German-speaking Latvian baroness Alexandra Wolff von Stomersee, called “Licy”, who eventually moved after Soviet occupation of Latvia to Italy in 1940. During her whole life she had a close bond to the German speaking area, as she had studied psychoanalysis in Berlin and had also met Sigmund Freud in Vienna. Thus it is quite likely that Tomasi di Lampedusa knew some of Fontane’s novels. Did he read the “Stechlin”? We have not got any conclusive proof, but the message of his “Gattopardo” is the same to that of Fontane’s “Stechlin”: at the end of the 19th century, old liberal aristocrats prove to be better in every aspect than ambitious nationalistic bourgeois. Whereas Fontane probably wished a political alliance between liberal aristocrats and the social democracy movement in imperial Germany, Tomasi di Lampedusa, 60 years and two world wars later, looked back in his novel with nostalgia to the lost world of aristocracy in Sicily.