The Bewitched Mirror: Imagination and Narration in Elsa Morante

Wood, Sharon

doi:10.2307/3730532

Cited by 1 publication

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Section: The Mind As Embodiedsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Such a view of memory as a present phenomenon matches with Wood’s observation about Morante’s interest in exploring the notion of the ‘past in the present’ (Wood, 1991: 314), rather than of the past intended as some external reality. ‘There is a sense’ Wood (1991: 319) continues, ‘that for Morante all time is present time, and this has profound psychological as well as narrative consequences’. Acknowledging the embodied nature of memory provides a useful framework as it not only justifies, but makes a point of, the annihilation of time that we witness on several occasions in Aracoeli ; the use of the present tense in the recollection of some particularly vivid memories (e.g.…”

Section: The Mind As Embodiedsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Referring to Menzogna e sortilegio – but arguably this holds for Aracoeli , too – Wood (1991: 321) observes that with Morante ‘narrative becomes the mirror to reflect not so much the world as the mind-in-the-world’. She continues by saying that, then, this ‘mirror is indeed bewitched’: I would argue, however, that that is the only way to be.…”

Section: The Mind As Embodiedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those who maintain a psychoanalytical framework tend nonetheless to shift the focus onto post-Freudian Lacanian, feminist and queer approaches, stressing the significant role of Jean Laplanche or Otto Rank, and of Luce Irigaray, Melanie Klein and Julia Kristeva (Bernabò, 2015; Capozzi, 1989, 1990; Fortuna and Gragnolati, 2009; Giorgio, 1994; Gragnolati, 2015; Holzhey, 2009; Wehling-Giorgi, 2013, 2015). Other scholars, such as Wood, instead, explicitly resist psychoanalytical readings; referring to Menzogna e sortilegio , Wood suggests what I believe can be extended also to Aracoeli , namely that imposing a psychoanalytical model on the text would equate ‘to invok[ing] a teleological model which fits uneasily with Morante’s refusal to sanction any social sense of history, linearity, and progress’ (Wood, 1991: 316).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Elsa Morante’s Aracoeli: A portrait of the mind as embodied

Beltrami

2017

Forum Italicum

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. KeywordsAracoeli, cognitive literary criticism, Elsa Morante, embodied mind, unreliability, memory Tale, o poco diversa, mi si presenta, coi suoi dintorni, la casa di Totetaco, se qui ne tento una ricostruzione logica. Ma si tratta, invero, di una ricostruzione forzosa, ossia fabbricata dalla mia ragione «reale», senza nessun aiuto della mia memoria. Se getto uno scandaglio nella mia memoria, fino a toccarne l'ultimo fondo, ne riporto alla luce un tutt'altro Totetaco: tanto veritiero e lampante che tuttora, mentre ne parlo, io rimango incerto e diviso tra i due. E denuncio così (non per la prima volta) la mia natura scissa, che spesso invalida la mia testimonianza perfino al giudizio mio proprio.Quale, dei due, fu il vero Totetaco? [Morante, 1982: 113] In 1982, Elsa Morante published her last novel, Aracoeli. On its back cover, the novel is usually described as the story of Manuele, a 43-year-old lonely, self-loathing homosexual and recovering drug-addict who has a problematic relationship with his long-deceased mother, Aracoeli. Without dismissing other possible readings, the cognitive approach brings to the forefront the presence of the mind in the novel and prompts us to explore its interplay with corporeality, which has often been stressed by extant critical literature. 2 Morante, indeed, not only stresses the centrality of the narrator's mind, but also emphasises its embodied nature. Processes normally regarded as purely mental -such as the elaboration of emotions, understanding and memory -are actually deeply affected by the

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Section: The Mind As Embodiedsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: The Mind As Embodiedsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: The Mind As Embodiedmentioning

confidence: 99%