ABSTRACT
Carlo Emilio Gadda was fascinated by the work of Shakespeare throughout the course of his life. One thing that is evident from even a superficial examination of Gadda's writings is the central space occupied, out of the vast Shakespearean canon, by Hamlet. Both Racconto Italiano and Meditazione Milanese include echoic references to Shakespeare, as well as more fully-fledged ideas that can be directly connected with Shakespeare's thought, as expounded in Gadda's later essays—clear proof that the English dramatist was, from very early on, central to Gadda's reflections and very close to both the literary and philosophical chambers of his heart. The act of ultimate cognition—and, for Gadda, the gesture of writing La cognizione, which itself incorporates and manifests that act—corresponds to that rejection and in part expresses it; to write La cognizione means to make explicit the homicidal intentions of Gonzalo-Hamlet.
