Introduction

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Perugia, La Rocca, Giuseppe Rossi, source: http://enowning.blogspot.fr/2008_01_01_archive.html

ANNE CARSON’s

CANICULA DI ANNA

A Story of A City?

A Poem of a Painter?

A Nomadic Dream?

A Tale of Crime?

Canicula

Occitane word

= etymology is « Little Dog » (Latin)

= alt name of the star Alpha Canis Majoris (Sirius)

= alt name of the constellation canis major

= in French, is a synonym of « Canicule »

= close to « canicola » in Italian: scorching heat

Canicula di Anna—

Carson’s « first book » published in Quarterly Review of Literature in 1984

Book reviewers and critics have summarized this text as

Written in “jargony academic” langauge, it “chronicles a convention held in Italy”

--Colin Hamilton, for Brick Books

“A 53-section poem partially set in the paintings of the 16th-century artist Perugino”

--(http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-679-43178-7)

Overall: it RESISTS DEFINITION & RAISES QUESTIONS:

Is it a STORY?

A poem?

A travelogue?

A “real” story of a character (the narrator? The poet? An imagined person?)

Canicula di Anna:

Story vs Poem

Direct address I / you

they

+ use of questions to start off

Carson’s work frequently has to do with gender & sexism:

Here the line on p 50 introduces that:

« A woman, as usual, is the problem » (50)

Carson’s work frequently has to do with gender & sexism:

Here the line on p 50 introduces that:

« A woman, as usual, is the problem » (50)

Allusion to Helen of Troy?

potentially confirmed on p 76: « Helen » (of Troy?)

« Helen enrages / history » (82)

Carson’s work frequently has to do with gender & sexism:

Here the line on p 50 introduces that:

« A woman, as usual, is the problem » (50)

Allusion to Helen of Troy?

potentially confirmed on p 76: « Helen » (of Troy?)

« Helen enrages / history » (82)

Yet Carson has named her character Anna. This appears an

almost arbitrary choice when she explains to us:

« But I would like to call her Anna » (52)

« I am free to invent her! » (52)

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

A real or imagined character?

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

A real or imagined character?

A character in Vennucci’s time? Someone he loved/longed for? His Madonna/Mary?

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

A real or imagined character?

A character in Vennucci’s time? Someone he loved/longed for? His Madonna/Mary?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or is Anna in a present moment (the conference)?

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

A real or imagined character?

A character in Vennucci’s time? Someone he loved/longed for? His Madonna/Mary?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or is Anna in a present moment (the conference)?

A dream or imaginary figment?

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

A real or imagined character?

A character in Vennucci’s time? Someone he loved/longed for? His Madonna/Mary?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or is Anna in a present moment (the conference)?

A dream or imaginary figment?

A a potential stand-in for anyone/anywoman: is she

Helen of Troy (Helena Anna)?

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

A real or imagined character?

A character in Vennucci’s time? Someone he loved/longed for? His Madonna/Mary?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or is Anna in a present moment (the conference)?

A dream or imaginary figment?

s a potential stand-in for anyone/anywoman: is she

Helen of Troy (Helena Anna)?

Anna  Anne =

Carson herself ?(an autobiographical reference or a persona? Alter ego?)

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

A real or imagined character?

A character in Vennucci’s time? Someone he loved/longed for? His Madonna/Mary?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or is Anna in a present moment (the conference)?

A dream or imaginary figment?

A a potential stand-in for anyone/anywoman: is she

Helen of Troy (Helena Anna)?

Anna  Anne =

Carson herself? (an autobiographical reference or a persona? Alter ego?)

ANNA = The FIRST UNKNOWN, the first paradox of this poem

Who is ANNA?

An arbitrary name given to a representative woman who causes trouble?

A real or imagined character?

A character in Vennucci’s time? Someone he loved/longed for? His Madonna/Mary?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or is Anna in a present moment (the conference)?

A dream or imaginary figment?

A a potential stand-in for anyone/anywoman: is she

Helen of Troy (Helena Anna)?

Anna  Anne =

Carson herself? (an autobiographical reference or a persona? Alter ego?)

ANNA = The FIRST UNKNOWN, the first paradox of this poem

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Interesting note: Carson’s brother, who travelled until he vanished, “wrote once, to say that he had fallen in love with a woman named Anna who died suddenly...” as Carson explains in her book NOX

A story:

--about a painter painting, perhaps painting a story or stories?

--told in layers

--using collage / montage

Layers of TIME: 16th c, Etruscan Period*, 1400s, Pre-1300s, NOW, 20th Century, 1935, 1504, etc)

Layers of SEASON thus another kind of TIME: July, autumn, June, etc

ETRUSCAN PERIOD: 768 BC–264 BCEtruscan civilization is the modern name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio.

PERUGINO, Pietro

(b. 1450, Citta della Pieve, d. 1523, Perugia)

Marriage of the Virgin

1500-04 Oil on wood, 234 x 185 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen

PERUGINO, Pietro

(b. 1450, Citta della Pieve, d. 1523, Perugia)

Marriage of the Virgin

1500-04 Oil on wood, 234 x 185 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen

Perugino painted his Marriage of the Virgin for a chapel in the cathedral in Perugia, which was completed in 1489, and in which the Virgin's engagement ring was kept. This valuable relic had been stolen from a church in Chiusi in 1478 and had only recently been retrieved, so it is not surprising that it takes pride of place in the centre of this picture.

PERUGINO, Pietro

(b. 1450, Citta della Pieve, d. 1523, Perugia)

The Delivery of the Keys, or Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter, 1481–1482, in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.

PERUGINO, Pietro

The Delivery of the Keys, or Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter

--was commissioned for the Sistine Chapel

--Depicts: Matthew 16: the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" are given to Saint Peter.

These keys represent the power to forgive and to share the word of God

gives them the power to allow others into heaven.

PERUGINO, Pietro

The Delivery of the Keys, or Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter

--was commissioned for the Sistine Chapel

--Depicts: Matthew 16: the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" are given to Saint Peter.

These keys represent the power to forgive and to share the word of God

gives them the power to allow others into heaven.

LEGEND:

The fresco was believed to be a good omen in papal conclaves: superstition held that the cardinal who (as selected by lot) was housed in the cell beneath the fresco was likely to be elected.

Contemporary records indicate at least three popes were housed beneath the fresco during the conclaves that elected them: Pope Clement VII, Pope Julius II, and Pope Paul III. (Source: WIKI)

Madonna with Child Enthroned between Saints John the Baptist and Sebastian .

Madonna and Child with Saints

Pietà c. 1490

Virgin and Child between St Rosa and St Catherine

Madonna di Loreta (Vergine con il Bambino e i Santi Girolamo e Francesco)

Apollo and Marsyas

Some of the story Layers:

Anna: Travel Past / marriage, etc

Painting(s): process, color, origin of colors, details, portraits & still lives

Some of the story Layers:

Anna: Travel Past / marriage, etc

Painting(s): process, color, origin of colors, details, portraits & still lives

The scholars: have travelled from all over the world to be at some sort of conference on…. Phenomenology? Philosophy? Metaphysics? Heidegger vs Hegel vs the Sophists. On truth / rightness/ knowing/ being. Question: Being— « ich bin ich » + IS / WAS Anna?

Some of the story Layers:

Anna: Travel Past / marriage, etc

Painting(s): process, color, origin of colors, details, portraits & still lives

Places: a visit of Perugia, La Rocca, and of its history

Sleep / dream

A series of murders

Some of the story Layers:

Anna: Travel Past / marriage, etc

Painting(s): process, color, origin of colors, details, portraits & still lives

Places: a visit of Perugia, La Rocca, and of its history

Sleep / dream

A series of murders

Unifying crossover details:

The dogs (and their irritating barking)

The narrative voice speaking to « us »

Language(s) intermingling

Arms: long, blue; etc

Other details: mosquitoes

A postmodern multiplicity & layering of Plots:

arrival: the story of a painter

Meetings & encounters with otherness / other’s ideas: throughout text

Trying to know/see/paint the story in darkness impossible

Concerts / performances: conference or even cellist (71)

A postmodern multiplicity & layering of Plots:

arrival: the story of a painter

Meetings & encounters with otherness / other’s ideas: throughout text

Trying to know/see/paint the story in darkness impossible

Concerts / performances: conference or even cellist (71)

Murder:

A postmodern multiplicity & layering of Plots:

arrival: the story of a painter

Meetings & encounters with otherness / other’s ideas: throughout text

Trying to know/see/paint the story in darkness impossible

Concerts / performances: conference or even cellist (71)

Murder:

MURDER 1: Anna? (64)

MURDER 2: Anna’s father (67)

MURDER 3: hunting (75)

MURDER 4: painting—lead or metal? (75) and « arsenic » in the paint (81)

MURDER 5: martyr of Christ: sacrifice? « victim’s arms » (80)

MURDER 6: Anna’s father again (82-83)

MURDER 7: « simulated » « terrorist incident » of Anna’s plane which « exploded near Milan » (85)

MURDER 8: « Sanguina » reference : virgin and lion

A postmodern multiplicity & layering of Plots:

arrival: the story of a painter

Meetings & encounters with otherness / other’s ideas: throughout text

Trying to know/see/paint the story in darkness impossible

Concerts / performances: conference or even cellist (71)

Murder:

MURDER 1: Anna? (64)

MURDER 2: Anna’s father (67)

MURDER 3: hunting (75)

MURDER 4: painting—lead or metal? (75) and « arsenic » in the paint (81)

MURDER 5: martyr of Christ: sacrifice? « victim’s arms » (80)

MURDER 6: Anna’s father again (82-83)

MURDER 7: « simulated » « terrorist incident » of Anna’s plane which « exploded near Milan » (85)

MURDER 8: « Sanguina » reference : virgin and lion

Something about the father-daughter relationship—first he bursts into wedding to try & stop it (pay groom to say no) but then he and daughter are debating these ideas as the ceremony ends & they leave the groom at alter (73), Anna « broke her father’s heart » (73) and then killed him (pp 82-83)

A postmodern multiplicity & layering of Plots:

arrival: the story of a painter

Meetings & encounters with otherness / other’s ideas: throughout text

Trying to know/see/paint the story in darkness impossible

Concerts / performances: conference or even cellist (71)

Murder:

MURDER 1: Anna? (64)

MURDER 2: Anna’s father (67)

MURDER 3: hunting (75)

MURDER 4: painting—lead or metal? (75) and « arsenic » in the paint (81)

MURDER 5: martyr of Christ: sacrifice? « victim’s arms » (80)

MURDER 6: Anna’s father again (82-83)

MURDER 7: « simulated » « terrorist incident » of Anna’s plane which « exploded near Milan » (85)

MURDER 8: « Sanguina » reference : virgin and lion

Anna’s arms:

a) birth defect/ lost twin

b) simulating stigmata (73)

c) christ (80)

Nomadic elements:

Places:

In Italy:

Perugia

La Rocca

Florence

Assissi

Rome

Milan

In France:

Paris

Louvain-la-Neuve

Others:

Greece

Germany

England

Brussels

New York

Languages used:

Occitane

English

German

Italian

Latin (p73)

Greek (p77)

Others?