Ancora una volta non sono riuscita a rispettare i tempi previsti… pazienza. Tra scrutini, progetti europei e lezioni da preparare l’idea di avere un po’ di tempo per me sta diventando un’utopia.
Tra un ritaglio di tempo e l’altro sono finalmente riuscita a mettere insieme le mie impressioni su Indigo, che ho finito di leggere già da un po’. Bellissima l’idea alla base di tutto -la rielaborazione de La Tempesta di Shakespeare in chiave postmoderna- e bellissimi anche i personaggi. Quello che mi è piaciuto meno è lo stile di Marina Warner. Devo ammettere di avere avuto qualche difficoltà e di aver dovuto rileggere alcuni brani più volte per capirci qualcosa. Questo perché ci sono molte descrizioni dettagliate nelle quali compaiono diversi termini ‘tecnici’ di oggetti ed oggettini e parti di oggetti che in inglese non mi sono noti. Colpa mia…
Ma veniamo alla storia, ai personaggi e alle tematiche di questo libro.
Intanto ad ogni sezione è associata una coppia di colori: partendo da lilac/pink fino ad arrivare a maroon/black la simbologia dei colori è onnipresente. Si parte da toni che suggeriscono la femminilità per eccellenza e che corrispondono ai capitoli in cui vengono introdotte le donne della storia: Miranda, Xanthe, Gillian ed Astrid. Bisogna subito chiarire che i personaggi vengono introdotti a coppie di antagonisti: Miranda e Xanthe vengono presentate come le due sorellastre (anche se in realtà la seconda è la zia della prima) di cui una ha sangue creolo mentre l’altra ha la pelle chiara ed i capelli biondi; Gillian e Astrid sono le due madri, di cui una apparentemente dolce e amichevole, l’altra scorbutica e rancorosa. Fin dall’inizio si percepisce la presenza di miti e fiabe: nella Londra del 1948 una bimba viene maledetta al suo battesimo… non ricorda un po’ La bella addormentata? Il rapporto tra Miranda e Xanthe richiama invece Cenerentola: la figlia primogenita che viene ignorata nel momento in cui arriva l’altra figlia, da una unione più felice.
Poi i colori passano a blu ed indaco e la storia si sposta all’isola di Liamuiga nel 1600: qui troviamo lo spirito di Sycorax morta che racconta gli eventi della colonizzazione dell’isola. I riferimenti shakespeariani da questo punto in poi si moltiplicano, a partire dai nomi dei personaggi fino ad arrivare alle tematiche dell’opera. Quella che in Shakespeare era una strega, qui è una donna normale che ad un certo punto assurge a sciamana. Il colore indaco non da solo il titolo alla sezione, viene ricavato dalle piante mediante un procedimento complicato che, a lungo andare, tinge la pelle di Sycorax di sfumature bluastre. Esso connota il personaggio profondamente e la sua simbologia di saggezza, conoscenza, realizzazione spirituale è tutta da riferirsi a Sycorax. Gli altri personaggi dell’opera di Shakespeare sono qui rivisitati in maniera particolare: Caliban viene estratto neonato dal corpo di una schiava africana morta, trasportata sulla spiaggia dell’isola dalla corrente dopo un naufragio. In realtà Sycorax lo chiama Dulé, ma poi i colonizzatori arriveranno a chiamarlo Caliban dallo storpiamento della parola ‘cannibal’. Infine ritroviamo anche Ariel che, nell’ottica di presentare i personaggi a coppie antagoniste, diventa in un certo senso la sorellastra di Caliban. Sycorax la prende a vivere con sé da bambina quando al villaggio la rifiutano. La scelta di fare di Ariel una donna è particolare per la storia del personaggio, ma assolutamente scontata per chi conosce un po’ Marina Warner ed il suo interesse per la figura femminile. In effetti le caratteristiche di Ariel sono prettamente femminili: nel dramma shakespeariano è lo spirito della musica che funge da servo a Prospero. Anche nel romanzo Ariel è in qualche modo lo spirito della musica: i suoi canti accompagnano la vita sull’isola.
I colori cambiano nuovamente ad arancio e rosso dopo l’arrivo dei colonizzatori: c’è un iniziale periodo di pace, anche se l’arrivo di Kit Everard causa una grave ferita a Sycorax che si ritrova bruciacchiata e con la schiena spezzata, costretta a camminare piegata in due… richiamando la tradizionale immagine fiabesca della strega (ed avvicinando così il personaggio alla versione shakespeariana). A questa fase segue però presto un tentativo di ribellione, guidato da Caliban (anche in questo caso avvicinando il personaggio all’originale shakespeariano) che non andrà a buon fine: Sycorax, infatti, muore nel tentativo di fuggire.
Dato l’interesse per le teorie postcoloniali della Warner, il tema della colonizzazione è onnipresente: anche la Londra contemporanea descritta nel romanzo ne porta traccia. Secoli dopo gli eventi di Liamuiga, a Londra si gioca ancora il Flinders, il gioco dei colonizzatori, in cui i nomi delle basi sono quelli delle piantagioni dell’isola. Il romanzo è in un certo senso circolare, visto che i personaggi contemporanei (discendenti dei primi colonizzatori) fanno un viaggio sull’isola e si comportano come moderni colonizzatori: dalle bellezze del luogo essi ricavano profitto aprendo un enorme hotel di lusso e sfruttando gli abitanti locali a servizio dei turisti. Non solo quindi la storia si ripete, ma si intreccia nel momento in cui il lettore capisce che lo spirito di Sycorax (in qualche modo intrappolata in un albero, come nell’opera shakespeariana) sente tutto ciò che accade sull’isola (voci e rumori).
La conoscenza dei teorici postcoloniali da parte di Marina Warner è evidente: alcune tematiche sembrano ricondurre direttamente alle opere di Said e Thiongo, in particolare. Alla base di queste teorie c’è una riflessione sul linguaggio secondo la quale il linguaggio è potere ed è stato utilizzato dai colonizzatori come strumento di controllo sui colonizzati. Uno dei perni attorno a cui ruotava la colonizzazione è stata l’idea che chi è portatore della parola è anche portatore della verità. Il rapporto colonizzatore-colonizzato ha sempre visto quest’ultimo come essere inferiore, a cui bisognava imporre la ‘civiltà’ e la cultura dominanti, relegandolo così, inevitabilmente, in una posizione di costante inferiorità. Il linguaggio ha il potere di dare un nome alle cose e in questo senso ha un ruolo importante nel romanzo visto che quasi tutto ciò che riguarda l’isola ha un doppio nome, a partire dall’isola stessa che originariamente si chiamava Liamuiga, poi fu ribattezzata Everhope, poi passò in mano ai francesi che la chiamarono Enfante-Béate e torna a chiamarsi Liamuiga quando gli abitanti dell’isola ne riprendono possesso. Ariel e Caliban hanno anch’essi nomi diversi: di Caliban/Dulé si è già discusso; Ariel in vecchiaia si cambia il nome in Madame Verard. Tutti questi doppi nomi implicano una riflessione che abbraccia anche l’identità, altro tema della narrativa postcoloniale. Il concetto alla base di ciò è che l’identità del colonizzato viene messa in discussione dal colonizzatore. Il rapporto tra Ariel e Kit Everard è esemplare in questo senso: Ariel inizia a comunicare con gli inglesi nella loro lingua e questo avvicinamento è segnato dalla storia con Kit Everard, a cui darà una figlia. Nel momento in cui lui non accetta la figlia, Ariel smette di parlare. E’ un silenzio significativo, se si considera il legame del linguaggio con il tema dell’identità.
L’ultima sezione è dedicata ai colori maroon/black, ovvero rosso scuro e nero. Il primo è il colore della madre terra ed è associato di solito alla guarigione e al potere di sconfiggere gli spiriti maligni. In questo senso il nero è probabilmente da riferirsi, tra i vari significati, alla comunione con gli spiriti ancestrali e alla maturità spirituale. E’ una sezione dedicata a Miranda che, finalmente, si lascia tanti problemi alle spalle e pare ritrovare un equilibrio sentimentale.
MARINA WARNER'S INDIGO
Writing this post was a challenge as I’m super busy in this period.
I really liked the idea behind the novel -that is a postmodern rewriting of a work by Shakespeare- and the characters as well. What I didn’t like is Marina Warner’s style. I must admit I had a little trouble reading it: I had to re-read some parts more than once because of the many detailed descriptions containing technical terms of particular objects.
But let’s go back to the story, the characters and the themes of the novel.
The book is divided into sections, each characterised by a pair of colours, starting from lilac/pink up to maroon/black: the symbolism of colours is everywhere.
The first colour tones (lilac/pink) suggest femininity and they correspond to the chapters where the female characters are introduced: Miranda, Xanthe, Gillian and Astrid.
The characters are introduced in pairs as antagonists: Miranda and Xanthe are introduced as sisters (even if the latter is the former’s aunt) but one has Creole blood and the other has fair skin and blonde hair; Gillian and Astrid are two mothers, but one is sweet and friendly and the other is ill-tempered and resentful.
Another thing that is clear from the very beginning is the presence of myths and fairy tales: in London in 1948 a baby is cursed during her baptism… doesn’t it sound like Sleeping Beauty? The relationship between Miranda and Xanthe reminds me of Cinderella: the elder daughter was ignored as soon as another daughter arrived.
The next pair of colours is blue and indigo and the story moves to the isle of Liamuiga in 1600: here we find the spirit of the dead Sycorax who tells the facts behind the colonization of the island. From this point on the references to Shakespeare's The Tempest multiply, starting from the characters’ names up to the central themes. Whereas in Shakespeare Sycorax was a witch, in Ms Warner’s novel she’s a woman who becomes some sort of shaman. The colour indigo is not simply the title of the section, it’s also a substance derived from plants through a very complex process and -in the long run- it stains Sycorax’s skin bluish. This gives a clear connotation to the character according to the symbolism of the colour: wisdom, knowledge, spiritual realization.
The other shakespearean characters are also revisited in very particular ways: Caliban’s origins, for example, are in the body of an African slave who was found dead on the beach of the island after a shipwreck. Sycorax originally calls him Dulè, but the colonizers call him Caliban as a mangled form of the word ‘cannibal’. And then there’s Ariel who is somehow Caliban’s half-sister, according to the dual introduction of the characters. Sycorax ‘adopts’ her when everybody else in the village rejects her. The choice of considering Ariel a female is very peculiar, but it’s not much of a surprise if one knows Marina Warner and her interest in female characters. If one thinks about it, Ariel is quite feminine as a character: in Shakespeare it is the spirit of music and is somehow enslaved by Prospero. Also in Marina Warner’s novel Ariel can be considered the spirit of music: indeed, her songs accompany life on the island.
A new change of colours -to orange and red- occurs after the arrival of the colonizers: there’s an initial period of peace, even if the arrival of Kit Everard causes a serious injury to Sycorax who ends up singed and with a broken back, forced to walk bending forward… according to the traditional fairy-tale imagery of the witch (this also assimilates the character to Shakespeare’s). An act of rebellion soon follows, led by Caliban but it is unsuccessful: in fact, Sycorax dies during the escape.
Given Ms Warner’s interest in postcolonial theories, the theme of colonization is ubiquitous: even the part set in contemporary London bears traces of it. Centuries after the events in Liamuiga, Londoners still plays Flinders -the colonizers’ game- and the names of the bases are those of the plantations on the island.
I would say that the novel has a circular structure, because the contemporary characters (who are the direct descendants of the first colonizers) travel to the island and behave like modern colonizers: they profit from the beauty of the island opening a luxury hotel and exploiting the local people at the service of tourists and visitors. History repeats itself and intertwines whereas Sycorax’s spirit (somehow trapped in a tree, like in Shakespeare) can hear everything that happens on the island (voices and noises).
It is clear that Marina Warner knows postcolonial theorists: some themes directly refer to the works by Said and Thiongo, in particular. Underlying these theories is a consideration of language as power, used by the colonizers as a control instrument of the colonized. The idea that those who bring the language are also beacons of truth has a pivotal role. The relationship colonizer-colonized has always seen the latter as inferior, needing civilization, which was imposed by the dominant culture.
Language has the power to give a name to things… in this sense it has a fundamental role in the novel if you consider that everything concerned with the island has a double name, starting from the island itself which originally was called Liamuiga and then was renamed Everhope. When the French arrived they called it Enfante-Béate, and was once again renamed Liamuiga when the inhabitants regained possession of their island. Ariel and Caliban also have double names: I have already mentioned caliban/Dulé; Ariel changes her name in Madame Verard when she is old. All these double names imply a reflection on identity, which is another important theme in postcolonial narrative. There’s the idea that the identity of the colonized is questioned by the colonizer. An example of that can be found in the relationship between Ariel and Kit Everard: Ariel starts speaking with the English using their language and this closeness is also marked by her affair with Kit Everard, with whom she has a daughter. As soon as he rejects their daughter, Ariel stops speaking. It’s a significant silence, if you consider the link between language and identity in the novel.
The last section is devoted to the colours maroon/black, that is dark red and black. The former is the colour of Mother Earth and it’s usually associated to healing and the power of defeating evil spirits. In this sense the colour black is probably to refer to the communion with ancestral spirits and to spiritual maturity. This section focuses on Miranda who finally puts her troubles behind her and apparently finds emotional balance.
MARINA WARNER'S INDIGO
Writing this post was a challenge as I’m super busy in this period.
I really liked the idea behind the novel -that is a postmodern rewriting of a work by Shakespeare- and the characters as well. What I didn’t like is Marina Warner’s style. I must admit I had a little trouble reading it: I had to re-read some parts more than once because of the many detailed descriptions containing technical terms of particular objects.
But let’s go back to the story, the characters and the themes of the novel.
The book is divided into sections, each characterised by a pair of colours, starting from lilac/pink up to maroon/black: the symbolism of colours is everywhere.
The first colour tones (lilac/pink) suggest femininity and they correspond to the chapters where the female characters are introduced: Miranda, Xanthe, Gillian and Astrid.
The characters are introduced in pairs as antagonists: Miranda and Xanthe are introduced as sisters (even if the latter is the former’s aunt) but one has Creole blood and the other has fair skin and blonde hair; Gillian and Astrid are two mothers, but one is sweet and friendly and the other is ill-tempered and resentful.
Another thing that is clear from the very beginning is the presence of myths and fairy tales: in London in 1948 a baby is cursed during her baptism… doesn’t it sound like Sleeping Beauty? The relationship between Miranda and Xanthe reminds me of Cinderella: the elder daughter was ignored as soon as another daughter arrived.
The next pair of colours is blue and indigo and the story moves to the isle of Liamuiga in 1600: here we find the spirit of the dead Sycorax who tells the facts behind the colonization of the island. From this point on the references to Shakespeare's The Tempest multiply, starting from the characters’ names up to the central themes. Whereas in Shakespeare Sycorax was a witch, in Ms Warner’s novel she’s a woman who becomes some sort of shaman. The colour indigo is not simply the title of the section, it’s also a substance derived from plants through a very complex process and -in the long run- it stains Sycorax’s skin bluish. This gives a clear connotation to the character according to the symbolism of the colour: wisdom, knowledge, spiritual realization.
The other shakespearean characters are also revisited in very particular ways: Caliban’s origins, for example, are in the body of an African slave who was found dead on the beach of the island after a shipwreck. Sycorax originally calls him Dulè, but the colonizers call him Caliban as a mangled form of the word ‘cannibal’. And then there’s Ariel who is somehow Caliban’s half-sister, according to the dual introduction of the characters. Sycorax ‘adopts’ her when everybody else in the village rejects her. The choice of considering Ariel a female is very peculiar, but it’s not much of a surprise if one knows Marina Warner and her interest in female characters. If one thinks about it, Ariel is quite feminine as a character: in Shakespeare it is the spirit of music and is somehow enslaved by Prospero. Also in Marina Warner’s novel Ariel can be considered the spirit of music: indeed, her songs accompany life on the island.
A new change of colours -to orange and red- occurs after the arrival of the colonizers: there’s an initial period of peace, even if the arrival of Kit Everard causes a serious injury to Sycorax who ends up singed and with a broken back, forced to walk bending forward… according to the traditional fairy-tale imagery of the witch (this also assimilates the character to Shakespeare’s). An act of rebellion soon follows, led by Caliban but it is unsuccessful: in fact, Sycorax dies during the escape.
Given Ms Warner’s interest in postcolonial theories, the theme of colonization is ubiquitous: even the part set in contemporary London bears traces of it. Centuries after the events in Liamuiga, Londoners still plays Flinders -the colonizers’ game- and the names of the bases are those of the plantations on the island.
I would say that the novel has a circular structure, because the contemporary characters (who are the direct descendants of the first colonizers) travel to the island and behave like modern colonizers: they profit from the beauty of the island opening a luxury hotel and exploiting the local people at the service of tourists and visitors. History repeats itself and intertwines whereas Sycorax’s spirit (somehow trapped in a tree, like in Shakespeare) can hear everything that happens on the island (voices and noises).
It is clear that Marina Warner knows postcolonial theorists: some themes directly refer to the works by Said and Thiongo, in particular. Underlying these theories is a consideration of language as power, used by the colonizers as a control instrument of the colonized. The idea that those who bring the language are also beacons of truth has a pivotal role. The relationship colonizer-colonized has always seen the latter as inferior, needing civilization, which was imposed by the dominant culture.
Language has the power to give a name to things… in this sense it has a fundamental role in the novel if you consider that everything concerned with the island has a double name, starting from the island itself which originally was called Liamuiga and then was renamed Everhope. When the French arrived they called it Enfante-Béate, and was once again renamed Liamuiga when the inhabitants regained possession of their island. Ariel and Caliban also have double names: I have already mentioned caliban/Dulé; Ariel changes her name in Madame Verard when she is old. All these double names imply a reflection on identity, which is another important theme in postcolonial narrative. There’s the idea that the identity of the colonized is questioned by the colonizer. An example of that can be found in the relationship between Ariel and Kit Everard: Ariel starts speaking with the English using their language and this closeness is also marked by her affair with Kit Everard, with whom she has a daughter. As soon as he rejects their daughter, Ariel stops speaking. It’s a significant silence, if you consider the link between language and identity in the novel.
The last section is devoted to the colours maroon/black, that is dark red and black. The former is the colour of Mother Earth and it’s usually associated to healing and the power of defeating evil spirits. In this sense the colour black is probably to refer to the communion with ancestral spirits and to spiritual maturity. This section focuses on Miranda who finally puts her troubles behind her and apparently finds emotional balance.
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