Resumen de “Aziyadé”: un romanzo tra sogno e realtà
This essay examines the debut novel by Pierre Loti Aziyadé, focusing on the relationship between the character of Loti and the young Circassian Aziyadé. Particular attention is also placed on the unrealistic geography of Istanbul, to the point that the city seems to be the setting for a medieval conte, and on Istanbul as a city of pleasure or of the “pâle débauche” by analyzing the homoerotic subtext of the novel. It has been observed that, in the Turkish context, among the potential factors of integration, capable of establishing spaces of freedom within the constrictive meshes of the Islamic ethical system for the success of erotic questions, a leading role must be attributed to the size of Istanbul. There have been many interpretations of the Loti-Aziyadé relationship; but only one seems to offer a broader view of the writer’s relationship with the beautiful Circassian. This interpretation makes use of René Girard’s theory of “désir triangulaire”. The novel is then analyzed in relation to the sources underlying it (Alfred de Musset, Chateaubriand, etc.).
