Venezia tra Sodoma e Gomorra: l’ogiva, il linguaggio, il segno

My essay is a re-reading of the Venetian episode of Albertine disparue following the thread of visual and linguistic form that drives and governs the entire narrative of this chapter. In particular, my analysis focuses on the shape of three objects: the ogival shape of the window in which Marcel’s mother appears while waiting for him at the balcony of the Hotel de l’Europe; the shape of the hood of the cloak in which the gentleman of the Compagnia della Calza is wrapped in Carpaccio’s painting Il miracolo della Croce a Rialto, and, finally, the swan-neck shape assumed by Albertine’s leg at the moment of her culmination with the young blanchisseuse. Each of these forms embodies the verbal-visual representation of the position assumed by the protagonist in the realm of desire. Key-words: Proust, Sodome et Gomorrhe, Venice, Albertine disparue, Carpaccio, ogival window, swan, Saussure