Inscribing the 'Self' in the City: Stelio Mattioni and Trieste

Trieste is perhaps best known for its geographical eccentricity. Perched on the upper North-Eastem comer of the Adriatic sea, Trieste has enjoyed or, perhaps, suffered almost since its foundation around the fifth century B.C., the status of border city. The proximity of the border is cmcial. The border has shifted at different times (owing to changed historical circumstances) bringing with it a redefinition of identity at each move. The border has been, and in many respects still is, experienced as a source of permanent anxiety and displacement. The border, most importantly, acts in the literary realm as a chronotope in the Bachtinian sense. ' The seemingly inescapable presence of the border is considered to be one of the distinctive features which are most ingrained in Triestine writing.