«Almost a houyhnhnm». Furio Jesi and Judaism

Abstract

In 1980, Furio Jesi admitted that he agreed with Swift's Gulliver, who regarded himself almost like a "houyhnhnm", one of the intelligent horses he met during his travels. Cavalletti's essay introduces this Dossierabout Jesi by tracing the secret symmetry between the mythologist, the Jew, the passionate reader of Kafka. These multiple personification of Jesi allows to reach a level of writing which is not only characterized by a historical and learned research, but also involves a personal, intimate and biographical dimension. Thus, the subject matter of Jesi's research provides the opportunity for a narrative which is also a research of the self.