Philosophy Study, October 2021, Vol. 11, No. 10, 778-781
doi: 10.17265/2159-5313/2021.10.005
Book Review on Pio Colonnello’s Synaesthesias and Anamorphosis Between Philosophy and Literature. Mimesis:
Milan, 2021, p. 150
Lucilla Guidi
University of Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany
Pio Colonnello’s book offers a speculative reading of the figures of synaesthesia and anamorphosis. It expands
them beyond their, respectively, rhetorical and figurative context. The book brings together J. L. Borg
es, de Certeau,
Montale, Jaspers, and Husrl, among others, in order to uncover a dimension of language, which goes beyond the
objective reprentation of reality. This dimension of language embodies a performative gesture, which reshapes its
“object” by referri ng it in an analogical—simultaneously synaesthetic and anamorphic way—to the weaving of
other nsory spheres, fields, and images, so as to open up the ecstatic and corporeal dimension of the human
experience.
Keywords: J. L. Borges, de Certeau, Montale, Husrl, Jaspers, ecstatic temporality, labyrinth, dance
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This volume explores a number of paths that cross philosophy, literature, and poetry. In particular, it brings together J. L. Borges, de Certeau, Montale, Jaspers, and Husrl, among others, in order to uncover the
speculative potential of the figures of synaesthesia and anamorphosis. Whereas synesthesia, as a rhetorical and
literary trope, refers to a particular kind of metaphor which establishes a mutual relationship between two
words belonging to different nsory spheres, the figure of anamorphosis—in particular within the context of
painting—points to a deformation of perspective. With anamorphosis, an image is projected in a distorted way
into a new field, so as to be recognizable only from a particular vantage point. Escher’s optical illusions, as
“impossible objects”, are specific examples of anamorphosis. In this book, Pio Colonnello, Full Profe
ssor of
Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Calabria (Italy), offers a speculative reading of the figures of中国铁路人
synaesthesia and anamorphosis: He expands them beyond their, respectively, rhetorical and figurative context,
so as to reveal a peculiar dimension of literary, poetic and philosophical language. This peculiar dimension of
language does not identify an object by means of its reprentation. Thus, it does not grasp it in its “objectivity”.
Rather it reconfigures it through a prismatic lens, so as to transform its very ontological nature. This dimension
of language embodies a performative gest ure, which reshapes its “object” by referring it in an
analogical—simultaneously synaesthetic and anamorphic way—to the weaving of other nsory spheres, fields,
and images, so as to open up its transcendent and ecstatic dimension. Synaesthesia and anamorphis are
therefore, at the same time, the topic of the book, and the performative enactment of Collonnello’s style of
thinking, i.e., the literary and speculative form of this book.
Lucilla Guidi, postdoctoral, nior rearcher, University of Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany.
SYNAESTHESIAS AND ANAMORPHOSIS BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE779
In particular, in the first part of the book, entitled “Synaesthesia, Anamorphosis, Labyrinths”, the author explores the anamorphic relation between the metaphor of the labyrinth in J. L. Borges, a rhizomatic (Deleuze),
ecstatic/uncanny (Heidegger, Freud), and erratic understanding of temporality, and the embodied movements of
da nce, as the latter was conceived of in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, in de Certeau’s reading of Catherine
Pozzi’s mystical poetry, and in Borges’ understanding of musical tango.
In the cond part of the book, by means of a number of phenomenological readings, particularly focusing on Husrl, Jaspers, Zubiri, and Ortega y Gast, the author further investigates the anamorphic relation, i.e.,
the open and mutual referral between the concept of temporality and the constitution of subjectivity.
The book begins with a fascinating reading of Borges’ story El jardín de sonderosque bifurcan (cf. p.
17 f.). Through this reading, the author shows that Borges’ metaphor of the labyrinth offers an anamorphic
image of both time and dance. On the one hand, Colonnello draws attention to the rhizomatic structure of
Borges’ labyrinth. Hence, unlike the Classical or Cretan model, in which the maze can be crosd in a single
direction so as to reach a center, and in contrast to a labyrinth in the shape of a “tree”, which involves infinite
ramifications yet only one path leading to the exit, Borges’ labyrinth posss a “rhizomatic structure” (cf. p.
20 f.). The latter is marked by an indefinite web of ramifications, in which each point can be connected to any
other, so to give ri to an indefinite proliferation of connections (cf. p. 21). From this perspective, Colonnello
claims that Borges’ labyrinth embodies an anamorphic image of time, since it offers a conception of time as a
peculiar labyrinth, involving the “proliferation and ramification of all possible futures” (cf. p. 19 f.), as well as
“the reversibility of the past” (cf. p. 22 f.). This (open) labyrinth contains all possible futures and past events,
thereby breaking both the linearity and the irreversibility of time. Furthermore, together with a conception of
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the labyrinth as an anamorphic image of time, Colonnello draws attention to the constitutive anamorphic
relation between the labyrinth and the movements of a dance. Indeed, the indication which the protagonist of
Borges’ above-mentioned story receives to help him find his way to Stephen Albert—the only person able to
solve the enigma in Borges’ story—embodies the spiral movement of “turning to the left at every crossroads”
(cf. p. 18): i.e., “The indefinite and spiral movement of turning around in a dance step” (cf. p. 31). From this
perspective, Colonnello shows that the labyrinth does not only embody the anamorphic image of time, but also
offers an anamorphic image of dance, thereby revealing the clo relation between time as a labyrinth and the
tonality, musicality and movement of dance. Hence, the spiral movement of turning around again and again
entailed in Borges’s story is also the key form of the labyrinth as the latter is conceived of in A ntiquity. Thus,
the relation between dance and the labyrinth is attested by Homer’s description of one of the scenes engraved
by Ephesus on Achilles’ shield (cf. p. 32). The labyrinth is originally the path of a dance, since in Antiquity the
latter takes t he form of a “meander” in architecture and the figurative arts. This form points to the spiral pattern
of a dance movement and “alludes to an open labyrinth” (p. 32). The same spiral pattern also marks Borges’
understanding of tango music (cf. p. 33 f.).
The book further investigates the uncanny and erratic dimension of our being in the world, so as to bring it in resonance with the anamorphosis of the labyrinth (Chapter 2). Through an analysis of Heidegger and Freud’s
concept of “Unheimlich”, the author ex plores the constitutive not-being-at home in the world which marks the
human condition. Furthermore, with reference to Jacques Derrida, Hannah Arendt, and contemporary
philosophical works, the author analyzes our not-being-at-home as a political-existential condition (p. 47 f.).
Here the constitutive “not-being-at-home” of humanity points to the task of developing “a politics of hospitality”
(cf. p. 50 f.), whereby we are no longer rooted in the grounded soil of a city or state, since we rather learn to
SYNAESTHESIAS AND ANAMORPHOSIS BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE 780
dwe ll in the form of “Wanderung” (errancy), so as to become “resident foreigners” (cf. Di Cesare, 2017) in the
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world.
As an anamorphic image of dance and of time, the labyrinth is further examined, respectively, through the analysis of de Certeau’s reading of Catherine Pozzi’s mystical poetry (Chapter 3), and by means of an original
interpretation of Montale’s poem “A Liu ba che parte” (Chapter 4).
In “The Labyrinth of the Mystical Word” (Chapter 3), Colonnello shows that, according to de Certeau, Catherine Pozzi’s mystical poetry is strictly connected to the dimension of music, corporeality, dance, and
rhythm. Indeed, Pozzi’s mystical poetry is compared by de Certeau to a “labyrinth” (p. 57), whereby “one can
feel as though he/she is entering into a dance” (p. 56). Here the labyrinth, as an anamorphic image of dance,
emerges again from a different perspective. Hence, the author underlines that the mystical dimension of
language is marked by the constitutive impossibility of speaking of the mystical event, which the mystical word
can only evoke, but invariably fails to express. The mystical event as such cannot be “said” but o nly
experienced, since it does not properly “exist” like the things that “are” in the world. From this perspective,
70道寺院素菜谱Colonnello stress that the mystical event happens and gives itlf (i.e., Es gibt), in the same way as Heidegger
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affirms that “time” and “being” cannot properly be said to “be”, since rather “Es gibt” (cf. p. 60). Accordingly,
the author claims that the mystical dimension of Catherine Pozzi’s word offers itlf within nsitive and
corporeal experience, belonging as it does to the realm of music, corporeality, and dance: This word occurs in
the form of an event, which can only be experienced and cannot be said, grasped, or foreen (cf. pp. 60-61).
The author further explores the temporality of the event, its ecstatic and anamorphic status, through an original interpretation of Montale’s poem “A Liuba che parte” (Chapter 4). He underlines the inparability All Rights Rerved.
between “necessity and miracle, transcendence and immanence” (cf. p. 67), which marks Montale’s poem. The
latter describes the departure of Ljuba Flesch, a Jewish woman who leaves Italy in 1938, on the eve
of the war.
The light tone of the poem offers, as “an anamorphic image, its Janus-like face” (cf. p. 72): It shows the
constitutive intertwining of the imminent tragedy of the war and the necessity of destiny, on the one hand, and
the unpredictability of the miracle and the salvation (cf. p. 73 f.) on the other hand. This Janus-like, anamorphic
face, points to an account of temporality in which past and future converge in the unforeeable“ch airological
moment” (kairos): i.e., the very moment of sudden illumination and salvation which Montale’s poem evokes.
This chairological moment (kairos) and its relation to the corporeal dimension of “pathos” (nsibility) are further explored by sketching out a “Christological poetry” (Chapter 5). Among other authors, Colonnello
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refers to Dostoevskij and his ecstatic rapture at the sight of Holbein’s famous “The Body of Dead Christ in the
Tomb” painting. Here the beauty of a suffering and disfigured Christ entails both the “horror of Holy Friday
and the resurrection of Easter” (p. 80). Horror and beauty, which are experienced before Christ’s suffering, are
高清电脑壁纸动漫no longer in contradiction to each other; rather, within the horror of suffering, beauty opens up. This experience
points to the chairological moment (kairos), which breaks the linearity of time and refers to Christ’s Second
Coming (parousia). This is conceived of as the moment (kairos) of salvation, and it is also evoked in the
famous passage of The Idiot according to which “beauty will save the word” (cf. p. 79). The Second Coming
(parousia), therefore, does not spell out a chronological event, which will happen at the end of times. Rather, it
领誓人points to an existential transfiguration of our actual way of living (cf. p. 81). Here one is no longer dominated
by the sadness of suffering, but rather experiences—within the sadness of suffering—one’s life as hope, beauty,
and giving (cf. p. 80 f.).
SYNAESTHESIAS AND ANAMORPHOSIS BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE781
The cond part of the volume is devoted to some phenomenological readings which explore the relation between temporality and the constitution of subjectivity from a philosophical point of view, so as to further
deepen the nsitive dimension of this constitution. A peculiar aspect of the question of time in Husrl’s
1906/1907 Lecture “Introduction t o Logic and Theory of Knowledge” is investigated in order to shed light on
Husrl’s later reflection on the problem of time (Chapter 6). Some psychopathological problems concerning
the constitution of subjectivity and personality in the young Jaspers are investigated, so as to uproot the sources
of Jasper’s philosophy (Chapter 7). A reinterpretation of the relationship between nsation and intellection in
Xavier Zubiri, which deepens the nsitive dimension of experience (pathos), is further examined in Chapter 8.
Finally, some original phenomenological paths, which are implicitly entailed by Ortega y Gast’s early works,
are brought into light (Chapter 9).
Through the phenomenological readings, the author sheds light on the process of constitution of subjectivity, so as to investigate the temporal and nsitive dimensions of this process. Here a further
anamorphic gesture is performed: In an analogical and anamorphic way, this gesture projects into a different
field precily the two dimensions which mark the poetic paths traced in the first part of book, namely the
image of time and the nsitive dimension of dance, so as to envisage them from a phenomenological
perspective.
The conclusion of the book is entrusted to a literary device: a letter written by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rostti to his beloved Jane Burden Morris, which the author’s alter-ego finds by chance in flea
market. Through this “unwritten letter”, the final part of the book explores the i nterction between p
oetry and
painting, conceived of as analogical, synaesthetical, and anamorphic forms of language. In such a way, this
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literary text encapsulates the pivotal motifs of the book: the Janus-like/anamorphic face of beauty, its nsitive
dimension and its transfigurative power. Above all, in the letter the figure of Matelda stands out. The latter is at
the center of Rostti’s painting “Dante’s Vision of Matilda Gathering Flowers” (1855). Matelda is the beautiful
woman who appears before Dante “singing, dancing, and picking flowers”, as he is entering into the Eden (cf.
Dante, Canto XXVIII, Purgatorio), i.e., “a forest—den, alive with green, divine”. From Rostti’s perspective,
Matelda is the anamorphic/mirror image of Prorpina, the goddess queen of the underworld, who Ovid describes
in the first book of the Metamorphos, just as Dante’s Matelda, as a beautiful maiden (puella) gathering flowers
in the forest. According to the myth, the rape of Prorpina is the event which transfigures the pain and fears of
humanity, since through her journey into the underworld she turns into divine consciousness (cf. p. 129). This
anamorphic image of Prorpina/Matelda, which transfigures the pain of humanity, anticipates the pivotal motifs
in Dante’s XXIX Canto, i.e., the passage from the Old to the New Testament. Hence, the metamorphosis into the
new life of salvation in and within the old one again refers to the nsible and corporeal experience of Christ’s
beauty, which transfigures our own life.
Thus, through a gradual climax, the book explores the Janus-face of an anamorphic and synaesthetic dimension of language across painting, poetry, and philosophy. This dimension of language encompass both
nsitive/corporeal experience and poetry, both the light of Dante’s words and the music of Rostti’s paintings,
so as to express the temporal ecstatic moment (kairos), which suddenly breaks out and transfigures one’s own
life.
