‘Una verità totale’: The Textual and Visual Encounter With the Other in Franco Fortini’s Asia Maggiore. Viaggio nella Cina

The article explores the photo-textual form of Franco Fortini’s Asia Maggiore. Viaggio nella Cina, the travel account published in 1956 following the writer’s trip to socialist China in 1955. I will discuss the interaction between the photographs taken by the author during the journey and the text. The issue of the literary genre will also be examined, investigating the nature of the travel journal as a combination of both a descriptive account and an autobiographical diary. I will then discuss how this photo-textual blend functions both theoretically – by analysing the nature of the photographic medium in relation with the text – and practically – by providing examples of the ekphrastic interaction of the two media in Fortini’s icastic depiction of colours and crowds. The allegorical value of the account of socialist China is then brought into question, with particular focus on the use of comparison as an argumentative strategy.