Guido Monte

Infobox Writer
name =Guido Monte


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birthdate = 1962
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occupation = writer, poet
nationality = Italian
period = 2000-present
genre = Poetry
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influences =Jorge Luis Borges, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot

Guido Monte (b. 1962) is an Italian writer and poet. In his recent works, he employs linguistic blending in the search for meaningful and archetypal relations between distant cultures. [Monte on Multilinguismo_cosmopolita] His works and translations have been published by many international magazines, for example "Words without Borders" (the magazine of Alane Salierno Mason, translator of Elio Vittorini) [ [http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?sec=Poetry&sec2=Italy Monte on "Words without Borders"] ] and "Ars Interpres". On his blending experiments, he uses also Japanese, [ [http://www.happano.org/pages/fragments/63.html "Dapur Vetur", on "Happa no kofu"] ] Sanskrit, [ [http://www.swans.com/library/art14/gmonte42.html "Journey n.6..." on "Swans Commentary"] ] Sheng [ [http://www.swans.com/library/art13/gmonte14.html "written on my sanbenito", on "Swans Commentary"] ] and languages of ethnic groups in Kenya.

Poetry and linguistic blending

On the way of Jorge Luis Borges, Ezra Pound’s "Cantos" and T. S. Eliot’s "The Waste Land", Monte thinks that “…if we admit that some archetypal ideas are common among our planet inhabitants, then we can state, in the sense meant by Borges, that just one “Book” has been written, as an evidence of the original and permanent cultural unity of the world and it contains all the chaotic fragments ever thought and written by people searching for the deep truth of things…”. [ [http://www.happano.org/pages/fragments/63-2.html "Cosmopolitan multilingualism", on "Happa no kofu"] ] Different languages can be approached and mixed together “to transmit something that apparently is far in space and time” (on what was definited as "a meta-communicative way" [ [http://www.swans.com/library/art13/saieva01.html Francesca Saieva, "Linguistic Blending. A Way..." Swans.com] ] ). On this thinking, a "blending" author can “compose” poems and works without using his own verses, but only other poets’ lines (and sometimes this is Monte’s peculiarity), remembering every time, in the beginning, the names of the authors. On another experiment, in fact, Monte puts together, in a common archetypal idea, lines of Virgil, Dante and Blake. [ [http://www.mid.muohio.edu/segue/4.2/Segue%204-2.swf "Origines", on "Segue"] ] If Monte translates, for instance, the first verses of Genesis or any other holy texts in two or three languages, “…we realize that the new and different sounds, irrespective of our linguistic knowledge, suggest new, universal, cosmic vibrations that the original version didn’t succeed in transmitting. In any case they reveal the complexity of reading different levels”.

Quote|"In principio diviserunt Elohim ""coelum et terram ""and the land was left barren ""et les ombres noires ""enveloppaient les profondeurs ""bade korgolòdei dar ruie ""oghionusoh parmisad ""et aura divina ""super oceani undas|"

(Genesis - "Words without Borders", 2004) [ [http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article.php?lab=Genesis Monte on "Words without Borders"] ]

About Monte and his new blending approach, the French translator Marie Rennard [ [http://www.champendal.com/docs/Le_Rugbyman_Nomade_Richard_Beard.pdf about Marie Rennard] ] said :"...sa démarche demande à être expliquée, la « résonnance cosmique » qu’il évoque peut faire sourire au prime abord, et pourtant, à le lire, à le relire, on sent naître cette communion des verbes de toutes langues, et sans être forcément à même de saisir toute l’ampleur d’une démarche qui, selon son propre aveu, le dépasse lui-même, on éprouve le plaisir profond que font naître les véritables poètes à l’oreille d’en dedans, pur bonheur, mere happiness, autentica felicità". [http://storage.canalblog.com/90/28/320433/17561486.doc "Langues et mixité" (Introduction de Marie Rennard)] ] Alison Phipps, expert in Intercultural Studies, defines this form of blending as an "embroidering gossamer". [ [http://www.swans.com/library/past_issues/2008/080922.html Swans commentary, sept.2008] . [http://www.gla.ac.uk/faculties/education/staff/alisonmphipps/ Alison Phipps] , Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow, says also about it: "“It is good to think with others about how languages find their way into the cracks and crevices of our lives - how they create a gossamer of relatedness which always has an unpredictable feel and future”". ( [http://www.swans.com/library/art14/gmonte52.html A.Phipps on "Swans Commentary", 2008] ). About her collaboration in eSharp project, see [http://www.sojel.co.uk/SOJEL/Sojel%20Papers/Sojel%20June%202007%20issue.pdf "Views from the bridge: publishing as a voyage of discovery", SOJEL, june 2007] .]
Here’s an example of Monte’s blending, on a Canadian magazine, between Qohélét on the Vulgata, William Blake and Giacomo Leopardi.

Quote|"et laudavi magis mortuos quam viventes ""they stumble all night " "et feliciorem iudicavi ""qui necdum natus est ""al gener nostro il fato non donò che il morire "

[and I saw the dead, they stumble all night, they were better off than the living, but best of all the never born... though - one choice left: to die]

(duonus/good, "Ygdrasil", 2006) [ [http://www.synapse.net/kgerken/Y-0606.HTM Monte on "Ygdrasil"] ]

In his last experiments, especially on "Swans Commentary", the visual coloured arrangement of verses (one colour for each one of the poem's selected authors) is important in conveying the intended effect of his multilingual works.

The French writer Orlando de Rudder [ [http://www.bibliopoche.com/auteur/De-Rudder-Orlando/23495.html de Rudder's biography] and [http://www.terascia.com/article.php?sid=470 about him] ] , who teaches Medieval Literature and History of French Language at the "Ecole Superieure de Commerce" of Paris, thinks that Monte's attempts are the beginning of a new "synthèse" des langues", a form of "Babel Library" where all the world poets live together, syncretistically, common universal feelings [ [http://orlandoderudder.canalblog.com/archives/2006/09/14/2678504.html comment on de Rudder's blog] ] .

elected bibliography

* "Tremila mondi in un solo istante di vita", ed. Della Battaglia, 2000
* "Ultima lettera" on "Sergio Quinzio – profezie di un’esistenza", Rubbettino 2000, a cura di M. Iritano - authors: Gianni Vattimo, Umberto Galimberti, Claudio Magris, Guido Ceronetti, Erri De Luca, Gino Girolomoni, Guido Monte, Sergio Givone, Nynfa Bosco (about it, see: [http://www.estovest.net/letture/iritano_quinzio.html Stefano Serafini, "Corporeità e sacro..." EstOvest.net 2001)]
* "Leuconoe", Nuova Ipsa, 2004
* "Il Niente richiamato all’esistenza" (with Vittorio Cozzo), iraccontidiluvi.org, 2004
* "Cosmopolitan multilingualism", Happa no kofu (Kawasaki, Tokyo), 2006
* "Langues et mixité" (Introduction de Marie Rennard), Annecy (France), 2007
* "Viage. Per una “fenomenologia” metacomunicativa" (with F. Saieva), Nuova Ipsa Editore, 2008

Translations

* "Palermo beat", by Patrick Waites, ed. della Battaglia 2000
* "Fragments", by Petronius, Litterae.net
* "Si cela un ramo..." Lucidamente.com, 2007
*"Xenia I" (from "Satura") by Eugenio Montale, LanguageandCulture.net, 2007
* "Bucolica" IV, (18-22, "The harmony") by Virgil, LanguageandCulture.net, 2007
* "Pasolini: Fragments Of 1968", Swans-Commentary, 2008

External links

* [http://www.lucidamente.com/default.asp?page=articolo&id=333 article on Lucidamente.com] (Italy)
* [http://www.nuovaipsa.it/ddn/msovidio.asp?menu=ddn&liv=a&modo=html "Good morning, monsieur Ovidio", by Rino Tripodi - Scriptamanent.net] (Italy)
* [http://gutcult.com/Site/litjourn8/GM1.htm work on Gutcult] , of Aaron McCollough (USA)
* [http://www.swans.com/contrib/gmonte.html Monte's biography on Swans Commentary] (USA)
* [http://www.swans.com/library/art14/gmonte49.html "Mondana Commedia (World Comedy) n.3: Paradiso", on Swans Commentary] (USA)
* [http://www.swans.com/library/art14/gmonte51.html Guido Monte & Alison Phipps, "Mondana Commedia (World Comedy) n.2: Purgatorio", on Swans Commentary] (USA)
* [http://www.swans.com/library/art14/gmonte50.html "Mondana Commedia (World Comedy) n.1: Inferno, on Swans Commentary] (USA)
* [http://www.swans.com/library/art14/gmonte52.html Guido Monte & Alison Phipps, "Mondana Commedia (World Comedy) n.4: Limbus, on Swans Commentary] (USA)
* [http://www.mid.muohio.edu/segue/vol4.htm work on Segue, Spring '06] Miami University Middletown, (USA)
* [http://www.cipherjournal.com/html/monte_fragments.html "Fragments", on Cipher Journal] (USA)
* [http://www.cipherjournal.com/html/monte_viaje.html "viaje", on Cipher Journal] (USA)
* [http://www.happano.org/pages/fragments/63.html "Dapur Vetur", on Happa no kofu] (Japan)
* [http://www.greatworks.org.uk/poems/monte/gm4.html poems on Great Works] (UK)
* [http://www.kissthewitch.co.uk/seinundwerden/ten/page22.html "Aha n.4: the end", on Sein und Werden] (UK)
* [http://www.litterae.net/Trad%20Virgil.htm experiments on Litterae] (Canada)
* [http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Guido1.pdf "AHA n.3..." on Nebula] (Australia)
* [http://www.arsint.com/2007/g_m_8.html "Aha n.5"] on Ars Interpres (Sweden)

ee also

*Modern Macaronic literature
*Antoine Cassar
*Joseph Campbell
*Words Without Borders
*it Multilinguismo cosmopolita
*it Poesia multilingue

References

Persondata
NAME=Monte, Guido
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Italian writer and poet
DATE OF BIRTH=birth date|1962|2|17|mf=y
PLACE OF BIRTH=Italy
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=