Ibridismo, ermafroditismo e poetica manierista in “Corydon” di Radu Stanca

This essay proposes a transversal reading of Radu Stanca’s Corydon. At first we have focused our attention on the enigmatic nature of the creature represented in Stanca’s poem, characterized by mannerism and theatralization. Corydon is an eccentric and bizarre “mask” in which narcissism, subjectivism, egocentrism and queerness are so exasperated that they provoke a deformation distorting reality in a grotesque manner, acting mainly on Corydon’s abstruse anatomy. In this perspective, Corydon represents the perfect hypostasis of a “mannerist man”, the materialization of a strong individualism that finds pleasure in transvestism and concealing. Mannerism structuring the “corydonesque” character reveals also an innermost and deep division that is satisfied only with the contemplation of a body belonging to a hybrid being. For this reason we have considered Corydon also a hypostasis of homo duplex drawn to spiritual drama. Corydon is devoid of identity and remains imprisoned by his own enigma because of his ambiguity and duplicity, both involving not only his aesthetic and erotic side, but also his deepest ontological structure. His hermaphroditism can not be considered as the revelation of a spiritual androgyny, because it involves the material and superficial side of his being, taking the aspect of a transgression to an established order. At the same time this hermaphroditism does not concretize itself through an anatomic coexistence of the two sexes, but it is rather a sort of symbolic and “mimed” hermaphroditism, through whom Corydon includes in himself feminine sex peculiarities. Therefore Corydon represents not only the manifestation of Stanca’s hallucinated mannerism, but also the reflection of that structural hybridism that shapes his stylistic matrix and dominates his spiritual horizon and his abysmal psychology, polarizing and heightening his syncretic and eclectic imagery.