Prospettive di analisi geo-letteraria per lo studio dei contesti territoriali. Un’indagine sul sistema urbano di Bilbao

The main objective of this work is to establish a dialogue between the literary and the real image of Bilbao, reconstructed from geographical sources, in order to trace a “history” of the city through time. Although seemingly pursuing different interests and goals, literature and geography are linked by the intention to observe, describe, and interpret the world. In the specific case of this thesis, geographical research provides the opportunity to explore the dynamics at different stages of the city’s history, while literary sources allow to trace the developmental processes and resilient features of the city, by reflecting the writers’ lived experiences. The perspective adopted is that of insiders who know the city from within and are able to keep track of the metamorphoses it undergoes. The investigation carried out through the methodological scheme developed aims to reconstruct the socio-economic and urban dynamics that shaped the urban system of Bilbao from the second half of the 19th century onwards, establishing a comparison with the literary representations that resulted from them. The large time span considered is divided into three macro-periods, that serve as a frame of reference for the study of urban changes; for each of them, an author who frequently portrayed the city in his work is studied, in order to investigate how Bilbao is perceived in its constant transformation. Miguel de Unamuno, Blas de Otero and Jon Juaristi, who were born and lived in Bilbao at different but successive times, have repeatedly referred to the city in their writings, and, surprisingly, shared conflicting feelings of odi et amo towards it. The decision to take a multifocal approach is rooted in the nature of urban space, which inherently lends itself to a multitude of gazes. Looking at Bilbao from multiple perspectives, in a diachronic sense, and contextualising each of them synchronously within the geo-literary framework to which it belongs, makes it possible to analyze a piece of urban history and attempt to trace a thread in the meanings attributed to the city in literature that can lead back to its intrinsic and, in a sense, immutable characteristics. The portrait of Bilbao outlined for each period is enriched by further glances, by a digression between other perspectives, internal and external, that are compared, when possible, with the points of view of the three authors discussed in this work. Looking back at their production, it is possible not only to note the constant change of the city, but also to identify fixed points in its portrait: although they experienced Bilbao at different times, marked by very different socioeconomic, political and cultural scenarios, the three writers draw a picture of the city that, when superimposed, has more than one common feature. Despite the profound changes that Bilbao has undergone over the centuries, it gives the impression of being marked by an irreconcilable dichotomy that always makes it the object of a double reading: on the one hand, it represents maternal warmth and refuge from adversity; on the other, it reveals itself as a place of chaos that urges to escape, asphyxiates, overwhelms. The character of the city seems to be condensed in its contrasts, in the uncertainty of instability and, above all, in the certainty of change, that leads it to become different from itself, but without ever ceasing to be recognised by those who, after all, recognise themselves in it. [edited by Author]