Une voyageuse en fauteuil? L’Islanda di Maria Savi Lopez

Abstract

<p>Around the end of the 19th century a small private steamer leaves from the coasts of Southern England and heads for Iceland. On board, in addition to the Captain, a small group of English travellers: three teenagers, who face this unique educational journey, the father of one of them, a governess. A Swedish Professor is later rescued from a shipwreck, and heads to Iceland together with the party.</p><p>This is the set of narrative voices that the author entrusts to report the journey in her work, Nei Paesi del Nord: each of them plays a fixed role and provides only a certain type of information, allowing the reader to pinpoint the various strands - historical, scientific, folkloristic etc. - through which a personal and choral narration proceeds. The image of Iceland is thus gradually built, like a puzzle that consists not only of cultural notions and personal sensations, but also of multiple, extraordinary events that are completely unpredictable both for the protagonists and for the readers.</p><p>The aim of this novel, written in the form of a travel report in a simple but precise Italian language, is undoubtedly to disseminate information regarding a remote part of the European continent among the widest possible audience of common readers. Besides the didactic value of this work, this study aims at underscoring the author's narrative technique: the protagonists’ narrative role allows the readers a thorough identification with the story.</p><p>The author, Maria Savi Lopez (Naples 1850 circa-1940), nowadays nearly forgotten, moved to Turin with her father, exiled from Neaples for political reasons. Here she developed an interest in local folklore, at the time passed down mainly orally. She was an ante litteram ethnologist and collaborator of the famous scholar Angelo De Gubernatis. A pioneer in field research, she collected the traditions and legends of the Alps in volumes, later expanding her repertoire with publications of different locations, from the Mediterranean to Northern European countries, to the ancient pre-Columbian civilizations. At present it is not possible to establish with certainty whether she actually embarked on a journey to Iceland, or she collected the information for his novel from encyclopedias and the few existing travelogues of her time.</p><div><br /></div>