Rachel Cusk's 'Parade' and the Unnamed Artist: A Study in Recognition
Rachel Cusk's upcoming novel, 'Parade' (2024), will be released in Italian as 'Corteo' by Anna Nadotti and Isabella Pasqualetto through Einaudi in 2025. The narrative revolves around four artists, all designated by the letter G. These characters are reminiscent of actual artists: one painter evokes Georg Baselitz, while a sculptor alludes to Louise Bourgeois. Another painter brings to mind Paula Modersohn-Becker, and the last, Norman Lewis, stands out as the only Black artist featured at the Artists' Sessions at Studio 35 in April 1950. A director resembling Éric Rohmer adds complexity to the naming. Cusk's previous work, 'The Stuntman' (The New Yorker, 17 April 2023), contained a statement that is absent in 'Parade'. The Italian version spans 168 pages. Born in Saskatoon in 1967, Cusk received the Goldsmiths Prize for 'Parade'.
Key facts
- Rachel Cusk's novel 'Parade' (2024) was translated into Italian as 'Corteo' by Anna Nadotti and Isabella Pasqualetto, published by Einaudi in 2025 (168 pp.).
- The novel uses the initial G for multiple artists, prompting readers to identify Georg Baselitz, Louise Bourgeois, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Norman Lewis, and Éric Rohmer.
- Cusk's story 'The Stuntman' appeared in The New Yorker on 17 April 2023 and in the 24 April–1 May issue, naming the painter D and including the line 'This is how I imagine it'; 'Parade' omits that declaration.
- Norman Lewis was the only Black artist at the Artists' Sessions at Studio 35 in New York in April 1950, and his canonization came largely after his death.
- Georg Baselitz began painting upside down in 1969 to remove the figure from immediate interpretation, a formal gesture the novel reinterprets as existential distress.
- Éric Rohmer used a pseudonym to separate his filmmaking from teaching; he was born in Tulle in 1920, though he often gave Nancy, 4 April 1923, as his birthplace.
- 'Parade' won the Goldsmiths Prize; Cusk's earlier novel 'Second Place' (2021) included an endnote resolving its allusions, unlike 'Parade'.
- Cusk, born in Saskatoon, Canada, in 1967, studied English at Oxford and won the Whitbread First Novel Award for 'Saving Agnes' (1993).
Entities
Artists
- Rachel Cusk
- Georg Baselitz
- Louise Bourgeois
- Paula Modersohn-Becker
- Norman Lewis
- Éric Rohmer
- Gilbert Cordier
- Mabel Dodge Luhan
- D. H. Lawrence
- Deborah Treisman
- Graham Petrie
- Anna Nadotti
- Isabella Pasqualetto
- Rita Selvaggio
- Hreinn Gudlaugsson
- Dominique Nabokov
Institutions
- Einaudi
- Stile Libero Big
- The New Yorker
- Faber & Faber
- Goldsmiths Prize
- Whitbread First Novel Award
- Museum Ludwig
- Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum
- Tate
- Dia Beacon
- The Easton Foundation
- VAGA
- ARS
- ATP DIARY
- LiteratureXchange Festival
- Studio 35
- Artists' Sessions
Locations
- Saskatoon
- Canada
- United States
- England
- Oxford
- New York
- Harlem
- Cologne
- Germany
- Bremen
- London
- Turin
- Italy
- Nancy
- France
- Tulle
- Aarhus
- Denmark