Elena Porciani
ELSA-NEL-TESTO E LA SCRITTURA POR EL ANALFABETO. CONSIDERAZIONI SULLA IO NARRANTE DELLA STORIA
Sinossi: In questo contributo prendo in esame le forme della narrazione della Storia di Elsa Morante con l’obiettivo di mostrare che l’onniscienza eterodiegetica del romanzo è solo apparente. Questa è infatti decostruita dalla presenza di una io narrante che non solo relativizza la prospettiva del racconto, ma si dà come una figura di Elsa-nel-testo: una narratrice che non è più l’alibi dell’autrice, come nei precedenti romanzi, ma aspira piuttosto a essere una diretta proiezione dell’autrice reale. In particolare, inuna simile postura diegetica si riconosce il programma morantiano di una scrittura por el analfabeto, che forza la convenzionalità letteraria per un rapporto più empatico e umano con il proprio pubblico.
Parole chiave: Morante, La Storia, alibi d’autore, empatia, io narrante, narratologia, onniscienza.
Abstract: In this contribution I examine the forms of narration of Elsa Morante’s La Storia with the aim of showing that the novel’s heterodiegetic omniscience is only apparent. This is in fact deconstructed by the presence of a narrator who not only relativizes the perspective of the story, but presents herself as a figure of Elsa-in-the-text: a narrator who is no longer the author’s alibi, as in previous novels, but rather aspires to be a direct projection of the real author. In particular, in such a diegetic posture we recognize Morante’s program of a writing por el analfabeto, which forces literary conventionality for a more empathetic and human relationship with its audience.
Key Words: Morante, La Storia, author’s alibi, empathy, narrator, narratology, omniscience.
Irene Gianeselli
LA STORIA PER UNA PEDAGOGIA DEL SUPERAMENTO: L ’OPERA ILLIMITATA DI ELSA MORANTE
Sinossi: Obbiettivo primario del contributo è proporre una lettura de La Storia come manifesto della tensione pedagogica trasformativa dell’opera di Elsa Morante. Il romanzo, unitamente al processo di scrittura, quindi ai manoscritti autografi, può essere considerato come un dispositivo didattico letterario per la società strutturato per indicare a chi legge l’assunzione di una postura critica verso le dinamiche politiche del Novecento, con lo scopo di ripensare l’ethos democratico. L’analisi dei manoscritti conservati alla Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma suffraga lo studio restituendo a La Storia e al laboratorio compositivo di Morante la dimensione di “opera illimitata”, secondo la definizione suggerita da Pier Paolo Pasolini. Per analizzare il processo narrativo di Morante è considerato il rapporto del manoscritto Superman con i romanzi e con Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini, definito dalla stessa autrice “grande poema educativo”.
Parole chiave: Elsa Morante, Pier Paolo Pasolini, pedagogia del superamento, dissacrazione sacralizzante, Transformative Learning Theory.
Abstract: The primary objective of the contribution is to propose a reading of La Storia as a manifesto of the transformative pedagogical tension of Elsa Morante’s work. The novel, together with the writing process, therefore the autographed manuscripts, can be considered as a literary didactic device for society structured to indicate to the reader the assumption of a critical posture towards the political dynamics of the twentieth century, with the aim of rethinking the democratic ethos. The analysis of the manuscripts preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome supports the study by giving La Storia and Morante’s compositional laboratory the dimension of an “unlimited work”, according to the definition suggested by Pier Paolo Pasolini. To analyze Morante’s narrative process, the relationship of the Superman manuscript with the novels and with Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini, defined by the author herself as a “great educational poem”, is considered.
Key Words: Elsa Morante, Pier Paolo Pasolini, pedagogy of overcoming, sacralizing desecration, Transformative Learning Theory.
Pietro Orlandi
UNO STILE “CREATURALE”: PATETISMO, LINGUAGGIO INFANTILE E DIALETTALITÀ NE LA STORIA DI ELSA MORANTE1
Sinossi: In accordo con una certa tradizione critica che ha inserito lo stile di Elsa Morante nel dominio della “creaturalità” (primo tra tutti per sistematicità Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo), nel senso di un atteggiamento materno e compassionevole nei confronti dei “piccoli”, il contributo si concentra sul plurilinguismo dialogico de La Storia. Dopo un primo indugio sulle peculiarità delle modulazioni tonali della voce narrante e del suo complesso patetismo, si avvia un’analisi della polifonia dialogica del testo romanzesco. Tenendo a mente il genere del romanzo storico cui Morante in parte si vota e le intenzioni di un progetto stilistico teso anzitutto alla comunicatività e all’universalità (come ben si evince dai paratesti editi e inediti del romanzo), ci si sofferma sul profilo del linguaggio infantile di Useppe, sul ventaglio delle varietà regionali e sulle produzioni finzionali di alcuni scritti di semicolti, con un occhio di riguardo anche per gli appunti documentari e linguistici dell’autrice contenuti nei materiali avantestuali.
Parole chiave: La Storia, creaturalità, pathos, compassione, Useppe, meraviglia, polifonia, dialetto, semicolto.
Abstract: In accordance with a certain critical tradition that has placed Elsa Morante’s style in the domain of “creatureliness” (first of all for systematicity Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo), in the sense of a maternal and compassionate attitude towards the “little ones”, the contribution focuses on the dialogic multilingualism of La Storia. After an initial linger on the peculiarities of the tonal modulations of the narrative voice and its complex pathos, an analysis of the dialogic polyphony of the novel text begins. Bearing in mind the genre of the historical novel to which Morante partly devotes herself and the intentions of a stylistic project aimed above all at communicativeness and universality (as can be clearly seen from the published and unpublished paratexts of the novel), we focus on the profile of Useppe’s infantile language, on the range of regional varieties and on the fictional productions of some semi-educated writings, with special attention also to the author’s documentary and linguistic notes contained in the pretextual materials.
Keywords: La Storia, creatureliness, pathos, compassion, Useppe, wonder, polyphony, dialect, semi-cultured.
Selene Genovesi
MORANTE’S “PLURILINGUISMO” IN LA STORIA AND WEAVER’S (MISSING) TRANSLATION. LOSS OR GAIN?
Abstract: Morante’s vast use of plurilingualism in La Storia has been described as ideological (Garboli, Baldacci) as well as populist (Mengaldo). In this novel, unlike in her previous writing, the linguistic variations are not only present in direct and indirect speech but also in the narrator’s voice. Interestingly, when analysing History: A Novel, as translated by William Weaver, published by Knopf in 1977, we can see that the language has undergone a flattening process and the dialectal and regional choices carefully and consciously made by Morante are not taken into consideration in the English translation, which is lacking this linguistic code-switching. My article will attempt a brief analysis of a few extracts, by comparing source and target text, and by considering what theoretical approaches and methodologies the English translator preferred.
Key Words: Elsa Morante, La Storia, dialect, multilingual, translation, Willian Weaver.
Katrin Wehling-Giorgi
“UNA STAMPA LUCIDA ”: TRAUMATIC IMAGES AND RUINOUS LANDSCAPES IN ELSA MORANTE’S LA STORIA AND ARACOELI
Abstract: The article provides a new comparative reading between Morante’s La Storia and Aracoeli through the lens of trauma studies. Arguing that both works negotiate individual and collective trauma, it identifies the aesthetic tropes of images and spatio-temporal topographies as powerful expressions of loss. A close reading of (photographic) images, postcards, visual dreamscapes, material topographies, and palimpsestic temporalities provides new insights into Morante’s poetics of trauma, shaped by the close entanglement of a realist narrative surface and the uncanny deposits that underlie it. Referencing the latest studies in the imagistic and spatial negotiation of trauma, the comparative reading underscores the lasting legacy of La Storia as a traumatic sub-text in the author’s later narrative production.
Key Words: Elsa Morante, trauma, photographs, visual narratives, ekphrasis, Aracoeli, La Storia, temporality, materialism, dreamscapes.
Sanja Kobilj Ćuić
IDA RAMUNDO’S JOURNEY TO CONSCIOUSNESS IN ELSA MORANTE’S LA STORIA
Abstract: La Storia by Elsa Morante has often been interpreted as an ode to motherhood through the embodiment of Ida Ramundo and her son Useppe as the Virgin Mary and Jesus, respectively. The aim of this paper is to shed light on another possible symbolic meaning of this character within the cathedral of La Storia itself. Through her dreams, hallucinations, hysterical episodes, and ultimately madness at the end of the novel, Ida Ramundo embodies the idea of the “Felici Pochi” from Morante’s previous work, Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini, who, by losing their sanity, gain the ability to perceive reality. Through her altruism and love for others, Ida embodies the possibility of a new beginning that challenges the role of Power within the Symbolic Order. The methodological framework utilized in this analysis draws on Julia Kristeva’s interpretations of the chōra, alongside the concept of Revolutionary Time as introduced by philosopher Fanny Söderbäck. This approach seeks to uncover, within Kristeva’s notion of the chōra, the potential for new beginnings and social transformations through the integration of temporal and spatial dimensions.
Key Words: chōra, dreams, hallucinations, motherhood, ghetto, reality, trauma, revolutionary time.
Guido Bartolini
LA STORIA COME VETTORE DI MEMORIA: IL ROMANZO DI MORANTE NELLA CULTURA DEL RICORDO DEL DOPOGUERRA
Sinossi: L’articolo indaga il ruolo della Storia di Elsa Morante nell’elaborazione della memoria collettiva del passato italiano in relazione a tre macro eventi: la Shoah, la Resistenza e la Guerra dell’Asse. Attraverso un’analisi testuale approfondita della rappresentazione di questi eventi storici nel romanzo, l’articolo mette in luce le importanti innovazioni introdotte dalla Storia nel panorama della memoria dell’Italia degli anni Settanta—soprattutto per quanto riguarda la Shoah e la Resistenza. Allo stesso tempo, l’articolo evidenzia i limiti del discorso sul passato sviluppato dal romanzo che ha teso a riproporre alcuni dei tropi acritici della memoria pubblica del dopoguerra—specie per quel che riguarda la Guerra dell’Asse e la mancata indagine dei carnefici italiani. L’analisi viene sviluppata mettendo in dialogo la critica letteraria sulla Storia e gli studi riguardanti la memoria italiana e le teorie dei memory studies, contribuendo così a una comprensione approfondita della funzione del romanzo di Morante come vettore di memoria.
Parole chiave: Shoah, Resistenza, Guerra dell’Asse, Memoria culturale, Storia e letteratura.
Abstract: The article investigates the role of Elsa Morante’s Storia in the elaboration of the collective memory of the Italian past in relation to three macro events: the Shoah, the Resistance and the Axis War. Through an in-depth textual analysis of the novel’s representation of these historical events, the article highlights the important innovations introduced by La Storia in the panorama of memory in Italy in the Seventies—especially with regard to the Shoah and the Resistance. At the same time, the article highlights the limits of the discourse on the past developed by the novel, which has tended to re-propose some of the uncritical tropes of post-war public memory—especially with regard to the Axis War and the failure to investigate the Italian belligerents. The analysis is developed by putting literary criticism of La Storia into dialogue with studies on Italian memory and the theories of memory studies, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the function of Morante’s novel as a vector of memory.
Key Words: Shoah, Resistance, Axis War, Cultural memory, History and literature.
Shachar Livne
LA STORIA IN HEBREW: A HISTORY
Abstract: Though regarded as “one of the most emblematic texts for literary representations of the Italian Shoah” (Lucamante 15), La Storia’s position in Hebrew, and consequently among the world’s largest Jewish community, has been problematic. Immediately after its publication in Italy, the novel received little attention in Israel: it was perceived as “not Jewish enough,” as it deviated from the typical story of survival and resurrection that local publishers favored. Even now, after it achieved bestseller status and was proclaimed a twentieth-century masterpiece, Israeli readers still see La Storia not as a novel about the Holocaust, but as a work depicting the tragedy of the human condition more broadly. This essay traces La Storia’s Hebrew reception from the years prior to its translation—considering the reasons for its elision and neglect—to the novel’s post-translation success among Hebrew readers, who nonetheless continue to overlook its engagement with Judaism and the Holocaust.
Key Words: Morante, La Storia, reception and translation, Holocaust literature, Zionism.
Maria Vittoria Vittori
GENESI DI USEPPE E LA DIASPORA DEL SORPRENDENTE NELLA STORIA
Sinossi: Questo saggio incentrato sul ruolo di Useppe all’interno della Storia analizza preliminarmente le fasi della lunga gestazione ideativa del personaggio e, passando in rassegna le diverse configurazioni del suo ruolo narrativo, prospetta l’ipotesi interpretativa che sia la sua natura di creatura ibrida, a metà tra l’animale e l’umano, tra il folletto e il clown, a determinare momenti di epifania nel romanzo e a valorizzare, in uno scenario cupo e tragico, gli accenti di sorpresa, di allegria vitale e perfino di comicità.
Parole chiave: La Storia, Useppe, clown, nomadismo, il Pazzariello, epifania, diaspora del sorprendente, allegria, comicità.
Abstract: This essay focuses on Useppe’s role within La StoriaStory and preliminarily analyzes the phases of the long ideational gestation of the character and, by reviewing the different configurations of his narrative role, proposes the interpretative hypothesis that it is his nature as a hybrid creature, halfway between animal and human, halfway between elf and clown, that determines moments of epiphany in the novel and that enhances, in a dark and tragic scenario, the accents of surprise, vital joy and even comedy.
Key Words: La storia, Useppe, clown, nomadism, the Pazzariello, epiphany, diaspora of the surprising, joy, comedy.
Ruth Murphy
THE CHILD IN ADULT FICTION. USEPPE AND THE ETHICAL VISION OF ELSA MORANTE’S LA STORIA
Abstract: This article reflects on the place of children in ethics and children in literature through Elsa Morante’s 1974 novel La Storia, in which a small boy, Useppe, is the central character. Drawing on passages devoted to children in the work of thinkers such as Cécile Fabre, Stanley Cavell, Hannah Arendt, and Paul Ricoeur, it offers a philosophical understanding of children’s moral role in literature. Finally, it interprets La Storia as a novel in which the child’s subversive potential creates the foundations of an ethical vision.
Key Words: Children and ethics, children and war, abandoned Christ, New Testament, child’s-eye view, initiation, philosophy and literature, natality, language acquisition, Holocaust.
Marta Romagnoli
DEGREES OF DECREATION: TALLIS, USEPPE E LA SOFFERENZA REDENTRICE
Sinossi: Il presente articolo esplora i punti di contatto fra La Storia di Elsa Morante e A Fairly Honourable Defeat di Iris Murdoch, a partire dall’influenza del pensiero di Simone Weil sulla produzione artistica delle due autrici. La ricezione della dottrina filosofica di Weil in Morante è accertata da diversi studi (D’Angeli; Borghesi; Dell’Aia) e numerose ricerche analizzano il legame fra il pensiero filosofico, il corpus narrativo di Iris Murdoch e le opere della filosofa francese (Byatt; Lovibond). A partire da questa fonte comune, vengono qui individuati e analizzati alcuni concetti fondamentali del pensiero filosofico di Simone Weil ripresi dalle due scrittrici, fra tutti, quelli della “rinuncia a sé” e di “trasmissione del male”. Infine, i nuclei narrativi e le strutture portanti di A Fairly Honourable Defeat sono proposti come strumenti per rivedere e approfondire i concetti della “decreazione” e della “sofferenza redentrice” al centro della Storia.
Parole chiave: Simone Weil, decreazione, sofferenza redentrice, Iris Murdoch, compassione per identificazione, Elsa Morante, Tallis, Useppe.
Abstract: This article explores the points of contact between Elsa Morante’s La Storia and Iris Murdoch’s A Fairly Honourable Defeat, starting from the influence of Simone Weil’s thought on the artistic production of the two authors. The reception of Weil’s philosophical doctrine in Morante is confirmed by several studies (D’Angeli; Borghesi; Dell’Aia) and numerous researches analyze the connection between philosophical thought, Iris Murdoch’s narrative corpus and the works of the French philosopher (Byatt; Lovibond). Starting from this common source, some fundamental concepts of Simone Weil’s philosophical thought taken up by the two writers are identified and analyzed here, among all, those of “self-renunciation” and “transmission of evil”. Finally, the narrative nuclei and supporting structures of A Fairly Honourable Defeat are proposed as tools to review and deepen the concepts of “decreation” and “redemptive suffering” at the center of the Storia.
Key Words: Simone Weil, decreation, redemptive suffering, Iris Murdoch, compassion by identification, Elsa Morante, Tallis, Useppe.
Eleonora Conti
CONTROSTORIA, TRAUMA, LINGUAGGIO: UN CONFRONTO FRA ELSA MORANTE E ANTONIO TABUCCHI
Sinossi: Il saggio traccia alcune linee di continuità fra La Storia e i primi due romanzi di Antonio Tabucchi, Piazza d’Italia e Il piccolo naviglio, usciti a breve distanza di anni e accomunati da una narrazione che interroga pagine traumatiche della Storia nazionale, attraverso la voce degli oppressi dimenticati dagli Annales ufficiali. Adottando un punto di vista eccentrico o straniato per la loro narrazione e ibridando modi e generi, Morante e Tabucchi danno voce a una coralità di subalterni, bambini, animali, emarginati. Attingendo alla varietà della tradizione orale e mistilingue delle comunità messe in scena, i due autori rimettono in discussione le modalità di narrazione della Storia e le stesse strutture del romanzo. In questo contesto trovano spazio alfabeti segreti, poesie e linguaggi “altri” che nel momento in cui danno voce al trauma della Storia, offrono anche la chiave per ricostruire dopo la catastrofe. Tale conclusione è avvalorata dal confronto fra i testi presi in esame e il romanzo di Kurt Vonnegut Mattatoio n. 5 (1968), che stimola numerosi spunti di riflessione sul rapporto fra trauma, costruzione del testo e alfabeti sonori.
Parole chiave: Morante, Tabucchi, Vonnegut, microstoria, bambini, trauma, oralità, translinguismo, vocalità, uccelli.
Abstract: The essay traces some lines of continuity between La Storia and the first two novels by Antonio Tabucchi, Piazza d’Italia and Il piccolo naviglio, published within a short span of years and united by a narrative that questions traumatic pages of national history, through the voice of the oppressed forgotten by the official annals of history. Adopting an eccentric or alienated point of view for their narration and hybridizing modes and genres, Morante and Tabucchi give voice to a chorus of subalterns, children, animals, outcasts. Drawing on the variety of oral and mixed-language tradition of the communities staged, the two authors call into question the modes of narration of La Storia and the very structures of the novel. In this context, there is room for secret alphabets, poems and “other” languages that, in giving voice to the trauma of La Storia, also offer the key to rebuilding after the catastrophe. This conclusion is supported by the comparison between the texts examined and Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1968), which stimulates numerous reflections on the relationship between trauma, text construction and sound alphabets.
Key Words: Morante, Tabucchi, Vonnegut, microhistory, children, trauma, orality, translingualism, vocality, birds.
Saskia Elizabeth Ziolkowski
JEWISH IMAGES AND TRANSNATIONAL HISTORIES IN ITALIAN WRITING, FROM ELSA MORANTE TO HELENA JANECZEK
Abstract: This article first outlines Jewishness across Elsa Morante’s oeuvre to show how Morante contributes to traditions of diversity in Italy, before putting Morante’s La Storia and Helena Janeczek’s La ragazza con la Leica in conversation with each other to examine their related representations of transnational, Jewish, and Italian history. La Storia and La ragazza con la Leica focus on female and other marginalized figures, portray the legacies of Fascism, and explore the complications of representing history. In addition, the authors’ Jewish backgrounds are reflected in their works and relate to their portrayals of history.
Key Words: Elsa Morante, Helena Janeczek, Jewish, transnational, Fascism, Gerda Taro, book covers.
Francesca Nieddu
UNO STUDIO INTERMEDIALE DEGLI INTERTESTI MORANTIANI NE LE PUPILLE DI ALICE ROHRWACHER
Sinossi: Il presente contributo ragiona sui riferimenti intertestuali e sulla resa intermediale di due testi morantiani, la lettera XXVII inviata da Elsa Morante a Goffredo Fofi il 21 dicembre 1971 e il racconto Fioretti, presenti nel cortometraggio Le pupille (2022), scritto e diretto dalla regista Alice Rohrwacher. Ne Le pupille, Serafina, la madre superiora Fioralba, e le orfanelle dell’Opera Pia di S. Lucia dialogano idealmente con Elsa, Suor Gervasia e le dodici educande di Fioretti. L’intento di questo contributo è mostrare come l’adattamento cinematografico ripensi Fioretti come ipotesto della lettera morantiana per dar voce all’orfana Serafina, creatura ai margini, che con la sua innocente coerenza mette in crisi il sistema religioso che la contiene. L’intermedialità emergerà non solo come strategia narrativa, ma anche come modalità di pensiero fluido che mina il discorso religioso fondato sulle dicotomie bene e male, luce e buio.
Parole chiave: Elsa Morante, Alice Rohrwacher, intermedialità, adattamento, Fioretti, Lettera XXVII, Le pupille, Serafina.
Abstract: This contribution discusses the intertextual references and the intermedial rendering of two Morante texts, the “XXVII letter” sent by Elsa Morante to Goffredo Fofi on 21 December 1971 and the story Fioretti, present in the short film Le pupille (2022), written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher. In Le pupille, Serafina, the mother superior Fioralba, and the orphans of the Opera Pia di S. Lucia ideally dialogue with Elsa, Sister Gervasia and the twelve school girls of Fioretti. The aim of this contribution is to show how the cinematic adaptation rethinks Fioretti as a hypotext of Morante’s letter to give voice to the orphan Serafina, a creature on the margins, who with her innocent coherence calls into question the religious system that contains her. Intermediality will emerge not only as a narrative strategy, but also as a mode of fluid thought that undermines the religious discourse founded on the dichotomies of good and evil, light and darkness.
Key Words: Elsa Morante, Alice Rohrwacher, intermediality, adaptation, Fioretti, Letter XXVII, Le pupille, Serafina.
Elisa Vivaldi
“SPECCHIATI NELLA MIA FACCIA, NON SIAMO FORSE UGUALI?”: DESIDERIO MIMETICO E FORME DELLA MEDIAZIONE IN MENZOGNA E SORTILEGIO DI ELSA MORANTE
Sinossi: Il contributo investiga il romanzo d’esordio di Elsa Morante Menzogna e sortilegio (1948), con l’obiettivo di fornire una nuova lettura delle dinamiche relazionali proprie dei personaggi dell’opera sulla base delle teorie mimetiche di René Girard, approfondendo al contempo la riflessione critica sulla poetica dell’autrice. In secondo luogo, il lavoro intende approfondire i tentativi critici di proporre una tassonomia dei personaggi morantiani, e in particolare chiarire il rapporto simbolico tra la figura di Edoardo e il valore metanarrativo del romanzo. Collocando il ruolo del cugino all’interno della logica propria del desiderio metafisico descritta da Girard, e attraverso l’analisi delle similitudini che accomunano la triade simbolica composta da Edoardo, il “Pensiero” che anima l’epistolario di Anna, e il gatto-nume Alvaro, sarà possibile far luce sulle analogie fra l’agire di Edoardo e quella della narratrice Elisa, mostrando come alla base di entrambe si possa individuare da un lato, in linea con la teoria girardiana, la ricerca di un tentativo di conferma del fondamento ontologico del soggetto, dall’altro una reazione diretta alla morte.
Parole chiave: Menzogna e sortilegio, René Girard, desiderio mimetico, personaggio, narcisismo, metanarrazione.
Abstract: The paper investigates Elsa Morante’s debut novel Menzogna e sortilegio (1948), with the aim of providing a new reading of the relational dynamics of the characters in the work based on René Girard’s mimetic theories, while deepening the critical reflection on the author’s poetics. Secondly, the paper intends to deepen the critical attempts to propose a taxonomy of Morante’s characters, and in particular to clarify the symbolic relationship between the figure of Edoardo and the metanarrative value of the novel. By placing the role of the cousin within the logic of metaphysical desire described by Girard, and through the analysis of the similarities that unite the symbolic triad composed of Edoardo, the “Thought” that animates Anna’s epistolary, and the cat-god Alvaro, it will be possible to shed light on the analogies between Edoardo’s actions and those of the narrator Elisa, showing how at the basis of both we can identify on the one hand, in line with Girardian theory, the search for an attempt to confirm the ontological foundation of the subject, and on the other a direct reaction to death.
Key Words: Menzogna e sortilegio, René Girard, mimetic desire, character, narcissism, metanarration.
Rebecca Walker
“UNA METAMORFOSI STRAORDINARIA ”: EMOTIONAL EPISTEMOLOGIES IN “LO SCIALLE ANDALUSO” AND LA STORIA
Abstract: The works of Elsa Morante make a key contribution to the emotional landscape of modern Italian literature by means of a textual world disclosed through how young characters are “affected.” This comparative reading of “Lo scialle andaluso” (1963) and La Storia (1974) uses theories of affect to argue that Morante’s writing can be read for how it represents the manifold ways in which bodies are moved, positively or negatively, to inhabit the world, demonstrating the potential for literature to depict those movements and their consequences. The article first shows how children’s emotions enact a kind of “metamorfosi straordinaria” (“Lo scialle andaluso” 143) and expose, in a variety of ways, the trap of suffocating relational dynamics and the wider socio-historical forces which justify violence against the vulnerable. It then explores an extra-diegetic transformation which must take place if we are to believe in a “mondo salvato dai ragazzini” where emotional experiences hold transformative potential.
Key Words: affect, emotion, epistemology, Elsa Morante, children, La Storia, “Lo scialle andaluso,” Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini.
Lorenza Starace
THE TABOO OF ROMANCE: ON ELSA MORANTE’S L’ISOLA DI ARTURO
Abstract: The protagonist’s Bovaryst love for books has certainly attracted critical attention: Luisa Guj (1988) Marco Bardini (2000), and Giorgio Agamben (2007), for instance, have all provided essential insights on the ways in which books inform and inflect Arturo’s perception of reality. What remains overlooked, however, is the way in which the genres of the books that Arturo reads give him a gendered perception of such a reality. This essay therefore rereads Elsa Morante’s second novel, L’isola di Arturo (1957), by focusing on the parodical relationship that the novel entertains with its most recognizable intertexts: the chivalric romance and the adventure story. The investigation shows how Arturo’s understanding of gender dynamics is bound up with the narrative possibilities that unfold within these specific genres and emphasizes the role of parody in challenging traditional aesthetic values and enabling a feminist reading of the text.
Key Words: Elsa Morante, feminism, women’s writing, literary genres, parody, gender, 20th century Italian literature.
