Robert Dessaix, Night Letters: A Journey through Switzerland and Italy

Narelle Shaw
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In his autobiography

A Mother's Disgrace

, Dessaix explains that, in Russia in the sixties, he first became conscious of the power that issues from binary constructions of the world. He became aware of “the way binary constructions raise the stakes in any power game and make the thinking on both sides of the divide (the source of all power) more and more totalitarian” (66). Dessaix's resistance of totalitarian thinking is central to

Night Letters.

The novel is organized around the idea of parallel worlds. For instance, in mythical terms, north and south of the Alps are “different world[s] with different coordinate[s]” (33). Reason and civilization characterise the north, nature and unfettered animality the south. “Breaking through” from one world to another is mandatory.…

1072 words

Citation: Shaw, Narelle. "Night Letters: A Journey through Switzerland and Italy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3291, accessed 04 October 2024.]

3291 Night Letters: A Journey through Switzerland and Italy 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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