"Dissipatio Humani Generis": The "Fuga Saeculi" according to Guido Morselli
Dissipatio H.G. is the last novel by Guido Morselli, written shortly before he committed suicide. In it an unnamed narrator/main character, a former journalist who has left his job in Chrysopolis - the "Golden City" -, ekes out an isolated existence in the Swiss mountains to escape from a...
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2023
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| In: |
Annali di studi religiosi
Year: 2023, Volume: 24, Pages: 59-67 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Dissipatio H.G. is the last novel by Guido Morselli, written shortly before he committed suicide. In it an unnamed narrator/main character, a former journalist who has left his job in Chrysopolis - the "Golden City" -, ekes out an isolated existence in the Swiss mountains to escape from a world based on ambition and greed. At the beginning of the novel, his escape from the world, which he refers to as his fuga saeculi, is amplified and overturned by a sudden and complete dissipatio humani generis: all human beings have disappeared into thin air, and the narrator has become the last man left on Earth. Transporting it into a cosmic dimension, Morselli draws a real anatomy of solitude. However, the protagonist's detachment from humanity affords only partly an occasion for a new and deeper look at society, and at human nature. If the withdrawal from the word connected with more intense spiritual or intellectual experiences can be understood as a form of life, in describing its solipsistic apotheosis, Morselli outlines its bleaker limits, tracing - through a lucid organization of narrative spaces - a passional trajectory that winds its way through euphoric and dysphoric states. |
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| ISSN: | 2284-3892 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Annali di studi religiosi
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.14598/Annali_studi_relig_24202306 |