"Ogni madre" by Savina Dolores Massa

Savina Dolores Massa writes stories that are as dry as the island on which they carry themselves. In the preface, she explains she wanted to create “creature”, “che si tra aggirassero Avvenimenti e paesi della Sardegna passata”. Her figures are above all deeply rooted in the history of their ancestors and their homeland. Change always comes from outside, and what the new times bring to the people, they look with astonishment and passive, as if they were not affected and as if they had the choice to ignore it.

Vincenza Demontis’ incredibly beautiful eyes symbolize those fatal forces of persistence “. portano solo disgrazie” pay four worshipers their vision cruelly with life, and died in an accident than three months after the wedding Vincenzas husband, she dares not a man to look at. Alone she pulls her son Candido large. Arrafiella Satta marries Candido out of love, but she knows that “le cose Cattive non si sotterrano mai.” It is therefore determined to do without offspring, they could still get the hated, cursed eyes of the law.

In a moment of compassion but Arrafiella are once after and gives birth to the age of forty a son, Pissenti (“maledetto giorno, male dette pecore e maledetto il mio cuore molle!”).

Father Candido wants the boy to escape the vicious circle him elsewhere blank form; the mother seems, however, from the beginning of sin, “di presunzione, di vanità di fronte all altre madri con un destino già tracciato per i propri figli. ignorant povero e per tutta la vita” After studying versa Pissenti in his village, full of enthusiasm Enlightenment for the benefit of its arrears of residents who do not even read for the most part and write.

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But he expected them too much to hurt her unintentionally simple pride, brings her silent, insidious opposition to, until finally it kills an anonymous bullet. As his mother Arrafiella had left him long ago. With all the pain she knows that all the children of the village are the same, each son could have shot, because “l’orgoglio, ogni madre lo serve nel piatto dopo cena cena, by far andare i figli a dormire con la più pancia piena.” The Enlightenment idea that Pissenti had brought to the village would have robbed the mothers their sons, destroyed the core of the community.

This story ( “Ogni madre”) ends in the year 1967. All thirteen texts of the collection, who gives her title, are linked to phases of Sardinian history from 1870 to the sixties of the 20th century. Each story is preceded by its context (politics, society, economy) in two or three sentences to become more concrete but without as an action item. Rather, it provides the reader with a background foil, before the described fates win a meaning that goes beyond their individuality.

As we learn from the arbitrariness of feudal lords ( “Baroni”), the “banditismo” from to win construction of the railway from the systematic exploitation of the forests to railway sleepers and charcoal to power by the working and living conditions in the mining area of ​​the southwest, by the Allied air raids, the efforts of Rome is reister intellectuals who bulky Sardinians to political action , In episodes misunderstood social change the Sardinian identity survived as the only consistent, reliable value. All action attempts fail. “A voi sardi non si può insegnare nulla.”

So were the Sardinians, possibly captured as suspicious spectators and for many centuries, in their role as unquestioned victims, exploited workers. As wood collectors, coalfish, shepherds, servants, day laborers, they eked & nbsp; – many until the mid 20th century & nbsp; – one of deprivation life, property and legal rights, often excluded under almost stone-age conditions and elementarster Education ( “Per Liccu, l ‘ unica ricchezza di un uomo era la libertà, e solo gli anni potevano fargli curvare la schiena. “). Beneficiaries were the ones that had always been.

From these circumstances, many of the characters that tell of those Sardinian authors drawn. The weak remains nothing but lethargy, the strong man of the struggle for their sparse sphere of influence & nbsp; – if need be, at the expense of neighbors. Savina Dolores Massa’s women dominate their sons, and if they fail, they lose their language ( “la lingua morta in anticipo su di lei”) sit still, stand rigid ( “La madre paralitica, seduta rigida su una sedia con le ruote frenate since sacchi di carbone “). The men guard and defend the most important goods their honor and their pride. “Noi di dire a un altro Sardo, Tu mi devi fare il capo, non ci riusciamo, noi”.

Savina Dolores Massa is one of the remarkable group of young Sardinian writers whose texts are strongly rooted in their island culture and history, on whose soil they develop but innovative literary narrative forms and very individual style color [see my review “Sardinian literature from a hundred years – an overview on Books Reviews ” the stories in” Ogni madre “draw from what the genre has to offer the short story of potential. We read of unprecedented events, see people a spotlight on in an instant who turns their fate, are surprised by closing punch lines, the intimate inner dialogue listen to a widower with his wife, who killed himself.

Savina Dolores Massa evokes ungewöhn Lich strong impressions that you will not soon forget. This is due to the precision of its vocabulary, the density of their sentence structure, which is often slightly twisted like the gnarled trunk of an old olive tree or absent in the parts ( “Niente Stop: spente.”). Her style is sparse or fervently as their characters.

Again and again we find original, memorable images ( “Contando formiche con le ali”, “dalle parole pronunciate erano scomparse le vocali”) and Topics (eg in fairy tales reminiscent formulaic repetitions “. tu e, Sofia, non mi hai mai sentito la voce”), even natural magical elements ( “in vetta a un monte … decise di acchiappare due stelle via sostituire gli occhi della madre : spenti “), but which are grounded by the access to historic facts and develop by more stärkerere effect/