L'esperienza italiana di Manuel Puig: dal cinema alla letteratura

The narrative production of the Argentinian authour Manuel Puig (1932-1990) is notable for its close links to cinema both on a thematic and a formal level. He first came to Rome in 1956 in order to follow the courses of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, but after just one year abandoned his ambition to become a director or screenwriter and, as he himself later frequently recalled, thanks to his Roman experience moved from cinema to literature: during his second stay in Rome (1961-62) he started working on a screenplay but ended up with what later became a chapter of his first novel (La traición de Rita Haywoorth, 1968). His output comprises eight novels, but also screenplays, plays, critical essays and short stories. Among the latter, the collection entitled Gli occhi di Greta Garbo (1991) is of particular interest: the texts were published directly in Italian, and appeared first in the Milanese journal Chorus. These pieces have received little critical attention; all, except the last, revolve around Italian cinema, and enable Puig on the one hand to connect with his famiy roots (his mother, María Elena Delledonne, was the daughter of Italian immigrants originating from Zibello, near Parma), on the other hand to bring back to life the cinema student that he had been in the 50s, writing in his letters home about his personal experiences in the world of cinema and the films he had watched. This essay traces Puig's Italian experience and then focuses on the collection of short stories Gli occhi di Greta Garbo.