| Therefore, a movement from 0-2 is concerned with �poetic logic� and not the injunctive logic embodied in the term 1. The Regno delle Libert� Creatrici is a realm of jouissance and playful transgression, supposedly positioned beyond the control of the symbolic domain. While Benedetta�s 1924 novel Le forze umane [8] celebrates the way in which the abstract human forces of expression exceed and redetermine symbolic limits, Viaggio di Garar� dispenses with the human subject to position these forces and limits as pre-determined loci. The three 'realms' through which the protagonist Garar� journeys are abstract spaces that achieve a meaning through the characters, (or more accurately, the symbols) that inhabit them. Garar� represents both the imposition and failure of traditional scientific practice to come to terms with a human desire that defies definitive conceptualisation. It is in this way that Benedetta�s text also illustrates topographically F.T. Marinetti�s notion of parolibere. In his "Manifesto tecnico della letteratura futurista", Marinetti writes: "La sintassi era una specie d�interprete o di cicerone monotono. Bisogna sopprimere questo intermediario, perch� la letteratura entri direttamente nell�universo e faccia corpo con esso." [9] This statement implies a movement between three spaces (literature-the intermediary-the universe) in which syntax (the intermediary) is rejected as an unnecessary site of recodification. These three spaces can be located in Viaggio di Garar� as the three regni and read through Kristeva�s ternary model of chora/symbolic order/poetic language. While Marinetti denigrates syntax as a pass�ist convention akin to scientific positivism and positions it within a conservative symbolic space, the dwarf Garar� is Benedetta�s manifestation of the 'cicerone monotono'. Limping on her compasses, (her sole means of support both physically and philosophically), she aims to translate everything she encounters through her static scientific syntax. Her logical declarations, spoken with pious exactitude, are rendered absurd in the mysterious irrational realms that she visits. But Benedetta�s futurism did not seek to simply oppose science with irrationality and glorify the latter. In Le forze umane, for example, she employs terms from biology and physics to illustrate the development of her protagonist. Rather than negate science she reinvents it for her own purposes. Similarly, the futurists did not dispense with science as a discourse but rehabilitated it as futurist science. The futurist position on science elucidates, to a certain extent, the enigmatic scientific metaphors that Benedetta employs in both Le forze umane and Viaggio di Garar�. In 1916, a manifesto entitled "La scienza futurista" was published in which the traditional concept of science as an instrument for discovering truths is negated in favour of a new futurist notion of science as a means of creating as opposed to describing, and negating as opposed to affirming: "Come nel campo artistico l�erudito che sa catalogare e descrivere tutte le opere create dagli altri in passato non ha niente a che fare con l�artista che crea originalmente un nuovo organismo plastico, musicale, letterario � cos� nel campo scientifico lo sgobbone mediocre che � riuscito a furia di pazienza e di fatica a immagazzinare nel proprio cervello qualche centinaio di volumi contenenti una accurata relazione di tutte le verit� scoperte da altri, non ha niente di comune con lo scopritore geniale che trova nella realt� nuovi rapporti logici, nuove architetture di legami." [10] In the same way Benedetta seeks new bonds and relations in her texts despite her frequent use of terms from traditional science. Scientific terms are frequently employed in Le forze umane to represent the abstract and intangible relations within life, such as the emotions and relationships between people. The protagonist of this novel, Luciana, grapples with the Unknown (l�Ignoto), a menacing and chaotic force that assails her on the cusp of sleep. Luciana realises that while the Unknown cannot ever be understood, it can be 'differentiated' (LFU 8) and this act of (scientifically) translating the Unknown into 'difference' is the source of her expression and creativity. For Benedetta, artistic impulses [to page 73] originate from the Unknown (comparable to Kristeva�s 'chora') but her attempts to grapple with the oppression of the Unknown gives rise to artistic creation (comparable to Kristeva�s 'poetic language'). The relationship between the subject and the Unknown is also explored in Viaggio di Garar� as well as her last novel Astra e il sottomarino. The former attempts to show that the world cannot be measured or understood according to traditional ontological criteria, while the latter blurs the limits between dreams and reality. In the manifesto "La scienza futurista", the description of la scienza passata seems to characterise the absurd figure of Garar� and her journey: La scienza passata � stata sempre trionfiamente sicura di s�, idiotamente cieca di fronte alla imminenza colossale ed assillante del mistero che pullula nella nostra realt�: lo slargamento continuo della nostra vita rende necessaria la creazione di una scienza futurista audacemente esploratrice, sensibilissima, vibratile, influenzata da intuizioni lontanissime, frammentaria, contraddittoria, felice di scoprire oggi una verit� che distrugga la verit� di ieri, tutta inzuppata di ignoto, tutta protesa sensitivamente verso il vuoto che le sta davanti � Il fine supremo della scienza sarebbe, ipoteticamente, di non farci capire pi� niente: rivolgere la faccia dell�umanit� verso il mistero totale. [Italics in orginal] [11] This passage recalls Benedetta�s description of the 'human forces' which are always mysterious and ungraspable, but at the same time they can be conquered, sculpted, reconstructed and synthesised. In Viaggio di Garar� , Benedetta clarifies these forces by positioning them in spaces rather than expressing them through a subject. The human subject in this novel is no longer the immediate point of interest and the focus shifts to the creative process, or rather, the structure of the creative process. For Kristeva, 'poetic language' (linguaggio, langage) originates from the 'chora' � a site of primary generation � and surpasses the symbolic limit in order to express itself outside of linguistic and social laws. The first realm of this play-novel (Il Regno della Materia Dinamica) has a functional affinity with the 'chora': Nel cuore del Tempo-Spazio, centro degli infiniti cerchi concentrici che esprimono tutte le misure e tutte le proporzioni, vi � un Lago. La sua forma ovale rivela il formarsi di una tipicit� vitale nell�impersonalismo della circonferenza. Contiene un inattuale liquido di un verde neutro, senza volont�, senza tono artistico, ma denso carico e fecondo. Il Lago, cieco come un utero immenso, non ha orizzonte, poich� alte scogliere di nebbie monotone e cupe sconfinano e insieme separano la sua misteriosa forma dalla notte assoluta che si stende al di l�. (VG 1-2) Several important observations can be gleaned from this passage. Firstly, the Lake is placed at the extreme limit of an abstract concept; the cuore di Tempo-Spazio. It is a virtual space that cannot be positioned within any empirical discourse. Secondly, it has no human characteristics: it is impersonal, it contains an "inattuale liquido di un verde neutro, senza volont�, senza tono artistico, ma denso carico e fecondo." Yet at the same time it is maternal, it is like un utero immenso, recalling Kristeva�s uterine metaphors of the 'chora'. It is helpful to note that Kristeva partly derived her concept of the chora from Plato�s understanding of space. In Timeous and Critias, Plato defined spaces thus: Space � is eternal and indestructible � provides a position for everything that comes to be, and � is apprehended without the senses by a sort of spurious reasoning and is so hard to believe in � we look at it indeed in a kind of dream and say that everything that exists must be somewhere and occupy some space, and that what is nowhere in heaven or earth is nothing at all. [12] Similarly, the spaces (or Realms) in Viaggio di Garar�, are conceptual spaces; sites from which it is understood that all semiotic information is generated. According to Kristeva, "one can situate the chora and, if necessary, lend it a topology, but one can never give it axiomatic form." [13] 73 [to page 74] |