Sulla verità della letteratura. A proposito del primo romanzo di Anna Felder

Abstract

In 1970, Anna Felder debuted her writing career with the novel Quasi Heimweh, the German version of Tra dove piove e non piove, published periodically in Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Due to its plot – an Italian teacher describes her experiences with the children of immigrants –, the readers of the newspaper noticed its timely coverage of political events: even more so because the public vote on the Schwarzenbach Referendum was imminent. We, colleagues of the author at Aarau College, initially considered ourselves to be among the protagonist’s friends. However, upon closer examination, we acknowledged that this was not an appropriate perspective. Indeed, Felder’s novel, combining fiction and historical truth, was not restricted to the criterion of reference, but should better be seen as pursuing a poetic approach based on a reflection of ethical and aesthetical values.