Overview

The bilingual title of this volume, Contrappunti / Counterpoints, addresses the culturally interrelated dynamic of its substance: the reflections and stories of Giovanni Cecchetti, exquisitely written in his native Italian, but from the psychocultural perspective of contemporary Americana, and with illuminating forays into the Greek and Latin classics. To have grappled, asserts Cecchetti, with different languages and clashing cultures has enriched our lives, our awareness of the depth of humanity which runs through ourselves and others, whatever our nationality. It has also enriched our native tongue, bringing radically new meanings to every word that we utter. The dynamic between environment(s) and language - so sensitively rendered in Raymond Petrillo's translation - is as essential to the life of this volume as it is to the lives of the many people who grapple with the same existential binomial on a daily basis, at various levels.

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Reviews

Made up of meditations on umbrellas, wine, olive oil, poetry; of visionary stories and intensely private memories of persons and places; of lyrical flights and commonsensical observations: this marvelous 'miscellanea', enriched by Rimanelli's heartfelt Introduction, and made accessible to a broader readership by Petrillo's beautifully rendered English versions and his sensitive and detailed Afterword, will delight both 'habitues' of and novices to that lucid dream, that magical kingdom I think of as 'Cecchetti-land.' Moving, magisterial, humorous and haunting, these pieces resonate with the wit and wisdom of a young-at-heart Old Master whose sad affection for the infinite mysteries of living is surpassed only by his joyful faith in the meaning and power of carefully crafted words. 'Contrappunti / Counterpoints' is a thorough delight. (Rebecca West) Describing himself contrapuntally as 'this old Etruscan in California,' Cecchetti navigates with astonishing ease between the most disparate shores: between his boyhood experiences in Pescia and his present in the Pacific Palisades; between classical / humanist culture and the contemporary academic scene; between hallucinatory dreams visions and the minutiae of everyday life. Petrillo's graceful and well-crafted translations are as much felicitous readings as literal renderings of their exquisite Italian source. (Millicent Marcus) Vast (I should say prodigious) is the culture that, as a warm undercurrent, permeates the pages of this book. You read about such ordinary things as the umbrella, the telephone, the elevator, and you are extraordinarily and magically transported to a world where familiarly you sit in the midst of protagonists of Greek and Latin literature, and, even more, in the company of poets and painters and musicians of the Christian era. So supple and subtle is Cecchetti's art that you become part of it: it belongs to you and you belong to it forever. (Joseph Tusiani) The dual-language format of the book, with Raymond Petrillo's translations and afterword and Giose Rimanelli's warm introduction, offers opportunity for a wide audience to enjoy Giovanni Cecchetti's poignant humor and cultural breadth. (Rosario Ferreri, World Literature Today)

Author Information

The Author: Giovanni Cecchetti is one of the most internationally visible Italian scholars in the United States today. Born in Tuscany and educated at the University of Florence, he has worked for almost 50 years to establish and develop Italian departments at major American universities: Berkeley, Tulane, Stanford, and UCLA. Among his many volumes of literary criticism, we should note at least Leopardi e Verga, Il Verga maggiore and Voci di poesia. He has published over 150 articles dealing with a considerable range of critical problems, as well as translations. The most intense area of his activity, however, is his own creative writing: his volumes of lyrical prose include Il villaggio degli inutili, Spuntature intermezzi and Danza nel deserto; and his books of poetry are Diario nomade, Impossibile scendere, Nel cammino dei monti and Favole spente. The Editor and Translator: Raymond Petrillo is an associate professor of Italian at Texas A & M University. He received his Ph.D. in Italian literature from Rutgers University. In addition to a critical monograph, Itinerario del primo Verga, he has published numerous articles on Verga, Svevo and Cecchetti. He has also translated into English a number of Italian writers.

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