Chapter Four

Morante and Kafka

The Gothic Walking Dead and Talking Animals

Saskia Ziolkowski

Although the conjunction of Elsa Morante and Franz Kafka may initially seem surprising, Morante asserts that Kafka was the only author to influence Iler (Lo scialle 215). Morante 's own claim notwithstanding, relatively few ·:tudies compare in detail the author of La Storia (History) and that of Der !'rocess (The Trial). 1 In contrast to Morante, who openly appreciates Kafka but is infrequently examined with him, Dino Buzzati is often associated with Kalka, despite Buzzati's protests. Referring to Kafka as the "cross" he had to ll ·ar (54), Buzzati lamented that critics called everything he wrote Kafka­ \' ·que. Whereas Buzzati insists that he had not even read Kafka before writ- 111 ' fl deserto dei Tartari (The Tartar Steppe, 1940), which was labeled a 111 ·re imitation of Kafka's work.,2 Morante mentions Kafka repeatedly, par- 1 cularly in the 1930s. Clarifying that Morante later turned from Kafka to 't ·ndhal and other writers, Moravia also remarked upon Kafka's signifi­ •11111.:c to Morante in this period, referring to the author as Morante's "master" 111d "religion."3 While Morante may be less obviously Kafkan than Buzzati, 11 111.: xploration of her work and her "master's" sheds new light on Morante. I ,ike Marcel Proust, whose importance to Morante has been shown by it ·li1nia Lucamante, Kafka offers Morante an important reference point, es­ p •iully in the years in which she was establishing herself as an author. l1owing the productive affinities between Morante and Kafka, a German­ li1 11111:1gc author from Prague, complements studies on Morante and French 111t h11rs. Non-ltalianists often overlook Morante, and by engaging Morante in 1111v ·rsation with Kafka, Morante is drawn into new critical discussions, i Id 11µ. to h~~r growing rcvnluation as not just an Italian author but also a 1 nl'ld 1111thor. This chapter provid" two cxumplt·s or riroductivc ways to

'I 54 Saskia Ziolkowski Morante and Kafka 55 analyze Morante with Kafka: one explores Morante's reading of Kafka as read in te1ms of the Gothic" (384), a remarkable fact given both the abun­ Gothic, and another focuses on how associating Kafka and Morante calls dance of criticism on Kafka and that Kafka's work and Gothic ones are often attention to unnoted elements ofMorante's animal representations. described using similar terms such as nightmarish, weird, eerie, and uncan­ Kafka and Kafkan themes make significant appearances in Morante's n~, in addition to containing unsettling transformations and expressing de­ Diario 1938 and her stories of the 1930s, works that provide insight into stres of the unconscious. Only in the twenty-first century have Kafka schol­ Morante's development as a writer. Indicating an intensely personal sense of ars explored in detail the relationship between Kafka and the Gothic (see the author from Prague, Morante dreams of Kafka's death and associates Anderson and Bridgwater, written in 2002 and 2003, respectively). Mo­ herself and Moravia with the figure of Kafka in the Diario (40). Morante also rante's unusual interpretation of Kafka as Gothic is due to both her individual dreams of Odradek, a bizarre Kafkan creature who looks like "eine flache perspective and the fact that she came to Kafka at an early point, in her own sternartige Zwirnspule" (Kafka, Erziihlungen 343; "a flat, star-shaped spool de~elopment as well as in Kafka's reception. Her appreciation of Kafka was for thread" [Transformation 176)). According to Morante's self-analysis, her neither helped nor hindered by later criticism and commonplaces about the dream was shaped by Max Ernst's picture ofOdradek in the surrealist journal author from Prague. Given the unusual nature of her description, this chapter Minotaure ("Odradek" I 7; Morante, Diario 32). 4 In Ernst's drawing, the now explores what Morante might have meant by calling Kafka "Gothic." threads of this strange creature, whose problematic existence raises questions One of t~e few critics to explore Kafka and Morante together in detail, about life, form his name. Trying to explain Odradek the narrator asks, Ang~lo.Pupmo concentrates primarily on Kafka's The Castle, "L'uomo dagli "Kann er denn sterben?" (Kafka, Erziihlungen 344; "Can he possibly die?" occh1ah," and "II ladro dei lumi," in order to flesh out Morante's character­ [Kafka, Complete 344]), and Ernst's Odradek evokes this confusion, since he !zat!on. of her own and Kafka's works as Gothic. While Pupino finds several is part creature, part word, maybe alive, maybe dead, maybe object. int:1~umg connections between the two author.s, such as damnation, the re­ Ernst' s unusual picture has been identified as one of the earliest visual stnct1on of space, and the unreal (17-38), Morante's Kafka can be distin­ representations of Kafka's works, revealing that Morante was at the forefront guished from Pupino's Kafka of the 1960s, not only because of her under­ of Kafka appreciation. The same issue of Minotaure that includes this depic­ standing of him but also because of which translations existed at the time that tion also contains a short description of Kafka by Andre Breton, who viewed she wrote "L'uomo dagli occhiali." The Castle was only published in Italian Kafka as sharing a great deal with surrealism (Breton 7, Whitlark I 5 I). 111 l 948, over a decade after the first publication of "L 'uomo dagli occhiali" Kafka was not indisputably famous until after World War II and readers of 111 1937. Although Morante could have read it in, for instance, English, I the I 920s, 1930s, and 1940s often stressed different aspects of Kafka's work propose that ~orante's i~ea of the Gothic may have been informed by a story than later critics did. While French intellectuals tended to focus on Kafka's that she definitely read m the 1930s, "Der Jager Gracchus." Based on the surrealism and existentialism, many Italians highlighted Kafka's realism and · vi~ence we have, Morante's Kafka is shaped less by many of the works he Jewishness. s From the 1920s to today, Italian critics cite Kafka as emblemat­ Is famous for today, such as The Castle, and more by short stories of Kafka's ic of someone who had a complex relationship to his Jewishness in discus­ p~1blished in the collection II messaggio dell'imperatore (1935), like "II cac- ,. sions of Jewish authors. 6 This early Italian emphasis on Kafka's Jewishness l' 11ttor.e Gracco" (The Hunter Gracchus) and the story about Odradek, "II is worth briefly noting, since it adds to the complicated picture of Morante 's 'l'ucc10 del padre di famiglia" (The Cares of a Family Man). These two relationship to her Jewish origins. 7 l scio/li' Morante and Kafka 59 Saskia Ziolkowski 58 tion. This analysis ofMorante's encounter with Kafka includes Morante in a the reader interprets the dialogue as a fantasy or "reality," within the context genealogy of Italian authors who looked to foreign, Gothic tales that offered of the story. Nicoletta Di Ciolla McGowan, for instance, reads it as imagined: "al~emative narrative models to the ethos and closed linear structure pre­ "Clara wants to see Maria, her dead friend, and her resolution is so strong s~nbed by realism" (Billiani 15). 11 Comparing Kafka and Morante also pro­ that Maria materialises in front of her" (249). Because of how bizarre they vides anothe~ way to discuss Morante's early work that does not relegate it to are several of Kafka's stories have also been interpreted as psychological mere t~emat1c fodder, a source of themes expanded upon in her later novels. haliucinations, but viewing the events in Kafka's work and Morante's story ~Ile the e~ploration of "L'uomo dagli occhiali" and "Der Jager Grac­ as actually happening makes the description of them as "Gothic" more con­ chus as Gothic Kafkan works draws on Morante's explicit mentions of vincing. Just as with Kafka, an interpretation of the events as a dream rests in Kafka, I now want to suggest how a comparison with Kafka based on the large part on the eeriness of what occurs, not necessarily on textual evidence. r~levan~e of Kafka criticism to Morante can bring her work into broader The fact that Clara relates details, like the timing of her death in relationship d1scuss10ns. The unnoted significance of Morante to what is called "Animal to the days the man does not remember, that Maria could not have known and Stu~ie~" contrasts with the place Kafka holds in the growing field. While that link the two parts of "L 'uomo dagli occhiali" together, supports a non- ltah~1sts have called attention to some of the complexity of Morante's ani­ visionary reading of the story. mal imagery and Giorgio Agamben has discussed the intersection of Morante Morante's story starts with a realistic scene of the man waking up, con- und Ka~a's thoughts on animals and Paradise (102-8), many moments in fused, and beginning his daily routine: "11 tre dicembre (era un giovedi) Morante s texts that are relevant to current debates in Animal Studies remain l'uomo usci dal suo studio squallido posto alla periferia della citta" (Lo overlook~d. 12 ~y conce~trating on the import~ce of Morante's talking ani­ scialle 21; "The third of December (it was a Thursday) the man exited his mals to d1scuss10ns that include Kafka's "Ein Bericht fl.ir eine Akademie" (A squalid studio located in the periphery of the city"). The seemingly banal Report to an Academy), I aim to add to the body of criticism that considers detail that it was a Thursday gains importance as the man discovers that his 10 Morante's numerous animals and animal imagery and call attention to the sense of time is distorted, that it is not Sunday as he had thought. Like potential significance of Morante to Animal Studies. Like Kafka, Morante Morante's story, Kafka's "Der Jager Gracchus" begins with a description of portrays a number ofrealistically communicating animals in her fiction, and I seemingly mundane activities (Erzdhlungen 266, Complete 248), which jux­ 11rgue that the representation of animals in La Storia (History) and L 'isola di taposes with the bizarre arrival of a dead man. A sense of the uncanny llrturo (Arturo's Island) contributes to and often anticipates the debates on pervades the works in part because of the contrast between realistic openings !Ill: human-animal boundary. and the later appearance of the dead. Freud discusses this combination of Kafka's work figures prominently in debates on the human-animal boun- realism and the impossible as significant for literary evocations of the uncan~ d11ry. making significant appearances in The Lives ofAnimal s (1999), Animal ny, "das Unheimliche" (15~7). Both Kafka and Morante found reading kt.\·.· Config~ring the Human in Western History (1997), Savages and Freud fruitful for their own writing, and "L'uomo dagli occhiali" and "Der lli'11sts: Th~ Bzrth _oft~e Modern Zoo (2002), Melancholia 's Dog: Reflections Jager Gracchus" can both be productively read with a Freudian lens. For t~e ""our Anzmal Kznship (2006), and Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies purposes of my analysis, the importance of Freud's work on the uncanny m r11v J (2012). Critics view Kafka as a rare author whose literature questions discussions of the Gothic supports further Morante's unusual description of h11111ans' attempt to separate themselves from other animals: Kafka as Gothic. Although Kafka and Morante are not the only authors to share the Gothic In a post-Darwinian world, all stories are stories about apes told by other qualities discussed, Morante's claim that Kafka was the "first and last" au­ npe~--0r at least primates. Implicitly, all stories are about the struggle of a thor to influence her suggests that Kafka prompted her to experiment with purt1cular speci~s of ape to invent and preserve a nonanimal identity for itself. her content and style. While Morante's statement on Kafka's overwhelming < >n!y a few writers consciously incorporate that struggle into the bodies of influence cannot be accepted without qualification, both because of the po­ 1l1e1r texts. (Scholtmeijer 139) tential problems with any author's self-commentary and because of Mo­ rante's noted tendency to embellish the truth, Morante's characterization of l 1111 tl'11 y a~ of this struggle is a large part of why Kafka's "Ein Bericht fl.ir eine her work reveals that she considered Kafka particularly significant for her k11(! ·111~c," a ~to1y of an ape who supposedly becomes a man, plays a central development as an author. The importance of ~afka to Morante reveals that 111 lr 111 d1scuss1ons on the human animal boundary. Distinguishing "Ein Be­ even though she was perhaps. as has often been ~tut •ci, out-of-step with her l 1111 11\r cine Akudcniic" from the many stories in which animals and hu- conten1porru·i1.:~' urlistlc intc1\•sfs. she did look to otlll'r 1111thm~ liw inspirn- Morante and Kafka 61 Saskia Ziolkowski 60 La Storia also represents animals that are able to communicate with one mans communicate thanks to magic or unexplained critics circ~s.tances, of the human protagonists of the work. Unlike in works in which there is no highlight the story's realistic focus on interspecial commu~ication. explanation for how humans can understand animals, Giuseppe's compre­ Like Kafka, the narrator of La Storia often blurs the _lme between hum_an hension abilities are described as growing partially out of isolation: "Quelle and animal characters. Davide, for instance, confuses himself not only with erano fortune indimenticabili, per Giuseppe: e forse fu in quei suoi duetti the human boy Giuseppe but also with the dog Bella: primitivi con Blitz, che imparo ii linguaggio dei cani" (Morante, La Storia, · d" · · e a/ta quasi 11 O; "These were unforgettable strokes of luck for Giuseppe; and perhaps it ·d frattanto rincorreva le sue propne me 1tazt0m a voe . . E D QVl ~ ' "d" was in those primitive duets with Blitz that he learned the language of dogs" ragionasse in sogno con qualche gran Dottore, senza ~iu ac~orgers1 . 1 '.ar~ /are a due poveri ana/fabeti. Quasi non rammentava ptu'. anz1, ch1fra l tie, la [Morante, History 121 ]). The narrator's "perhaps" highlights the complex­ dentro, fosse to studente co/to, e chi ii pische/letto e chi ti cane. (Morante, La ities of understanding how interspecial communication can occur. Although Storia 524) this aspect of Morante's work has been pointed to as an odd moment of magical realism in an otherwise realistic historical fiction, isolation from And Davide, meanwhile, pursued his own meditations aloud, ~s. if he were one's species is examined as a realistic element of Kafka's "Ein Bericht ftir disputing in a dream with some great Doctor, no longer reahzmg he was eine Akademie," showing that often what is credible in stories of animal­ speaking to two poor illiterates. As if, indeed, he no longer remembered wh~ , human communication has more to do with preconceived notions on the part among the three there in the room, was the cultivated student, and who the kid of the human reader than on animals' abilities. Morante's narrative pushes up and who the dog. (Morante, History 589) against the barrier of what humans conceive of as possible when it comes to In this passage the narrator complicates the categories o~,hun:1~ and_ noru:iu- human-animal communication. · . mals associating the two together as "illiterates. This identification Animals are not only treated as subjects in La Storia and understood by man ant ' L s · "t If an be seen of humans and animals as illiterates suggests that a tona 1 se :.. . ,, one of the human protagonists, but their noises, or language, are also as addressing animals, since Morante dedicates her work t~ the il~iter,~te, transcribed and translated into human terms, anticipating current attempts with a quote from Cesar Vallejo: "Por el analfabeto a ~Ulen. escnbo. By 111ade to understand animals' expressions. Although a more lighthearted and including a dog and therefore other nonhuman animals m this c.~t~gory of brief examination of animal speech than the scientific experiments conducted illiterates Morante aims to reach and portray even more than the ht~toD:' of today, Morante's work similarly raises questions about what animal speech is humanity'," as Cesare Garboli characterized it ("Elsa r:-'1orante"). !his wt?er u11d how humans can try to understand it. La Storia includes a description perspective is confirmed by the way La Storia also includes an~mals, hke 1111d gloss of how a particular cat's various sounds can be interpreted: "Per Bella and Blitz, that are treated as characters, given their o:vn h1s~ory, and !'11icdere, diceva miu o meu; per chiamare, mau, per minacciare, mbroooh, shown interacting with others even when they are not with their. human 'l'C. ecc." (Morante, La Storia 189; "To ask for something, she said: myew or companions in the novel. In other words, La St~ria often presents animals as 11111yeu; to call, she said mau, to threaten mbrooooh, etc. etc." [Morante, subjects and protagonists, as Concetta D' A~~eh has observed (10_4). . . _ I I/story 208]). The question of whether cats' mews are words is debatable Morante's representation of animals anticipates more recent views _m Am 11111 /,a Storia reveals that they do communicate translatable ideas that can b~ mal Studies that discuss how historical studies have neglect~d to mclude rqm;sented with letters. While the description is playful, the narrator also animals and could, in fact, be rewritten focusing on them. F~r. mstanc~ , John 1111 ·s the cat's noises seriously, as one would a foreign, human language. Simons describes his project, Animal Rights and the Poht1c~ of Literary Morante's cat who mews with meaning is an instance of an animal whose R t (on (2002)· "In this book I am proposing that there ts yet another prcssions can be represented verbally, but communication does not neces- epres;n al "t'ng Mar~· 'The history of all hitherto existing society is the 1rlly have to be verbal, an idea explored in L 'isola di Arturo. Just as Giu- way o rewn 1 · h ,,, (7) F critics history of the struggle between humans and non- umans · ~r. ·. 1l!IW has intimate relationships with his dogs in La Storia, Arturo develops a like Simons, the inclusion of animals naturally follows other rewntmgs ol. II i: iul bond with his, which leads to understanding another species: history with more focus on women, children, the poor, and so on. Morante 13 had al;eady made this move in her novel published in 1974. r:toranl • SI dlril: par/are /a/1/o d'una caf;110 ! Ma io, quand'ero un ragazzino, non avevo 11/11'/ C'ompagni che lei. e non si pur> IWRare ch 'era straordinaria. Per corrver- presents a worldview that includes a.nimals, in a portrayal that partially at­ 111/'t ' 1·011 me. avc•vo i11V<'ll/(l/o una s1>cci<' di /inguaggin dei muti: con la coda, tempts to balance more official histones that conccntrntc 011 the powerful. 62 Saskia Ziolkowski Morante and Kafka 63 con gli occhi, con le sue pose, e molte note diverse della sua voce, sapeva 9. Cesare Garboli, meanwhile, claims that Kafka is the onlv author to have clearly left his dirmi ogni suo pensiero; e io la capivo. (Morante, L 'isola 46) m ark on !"lorante's work (fl gioco segreto 130-31). • I 0. Giovanna Rosa focu.ses on ~e i~portance of time in the story ( 170). What a lot of fuss about a dog, you'll say. But when I was a boy I'd no other 11 '. Although M?rante is not cited m the collection, much of the analysis in The Italian Gothic and Fantastic: Encounters and Rewritings a/Narrative Traditions could aJso be used to friend, and you can' t deny she was extraordinary. We'd invented a kind of engage Morante's early work. deaf-and-dumb language between us: tail, eyes, movements, the pitch of her 31 ~ ror work on Morante and animaJs, see D' Angeli l 04-18, Porciani 230-33, Splendorini voice-all of them told me every thought of hers, and I understood. (Morante, Arturo's 3) ;.3. Morante's friends remember her as ahead of her time in terms of animal rights (Fontana 20 The passage suggests that the primarily nonverbal communication of Arturo 14. ither critics_ have r~ferred to interesting similarities between the two authors that de­ s~-ve rther _attenl!on. Ennca Puggioni for instance calls Davide Segre a "Kafkaesque hero" and his dog companion may be clearer than the spoken language most hu­ ( ) and ment10ns that H1sto1y clearly references Kafkaesque power structures ( 43). mans use with each other, similar to how Giuseppe's communication with dogs often seems to be the most the profound of any depicted in Morante's WORKS CITED La Storia. In both novels, again as in "Ein Bericht fur eine Akademie," isolation from other humans contributes to the intense communication be­ Agamben, Giorgio. "The Celebration of the Hidden Treasure." The End ofth e Poem: Studies in tween a human and an animal. ;g;~~-s. Trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999. Like Kafka, Morante's depiction of animals reveals the complexities of Anders~~ · Mark __M. ,:'T~e Shadow of the Modem: Gothic Ghosts in Stoker's Dracula and interspecial communication. Morante's animal depictions are multifaceted ~; ~a S Ame1 rka. L1ter~1y Paternity, Literary Frienqship: Essays in Honor of Stanley and can provide the starting points for conversations that continue to be of ll"IJ" 1 ngold. Ed. Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 2002. 1 G~~hard Ri~hter. Ch~pel interest to critics, philosophers, and animal rights advocates. Although Mo­ iani, Francesca. !?e Italian Gothic and Fantastic: An Inquiry into the Notions of Literarv rante's representations of various modes of potential human-animal commu­ and ~~ltural Trad1t1~ns (1869-1997)." The Italian Gothic and Fantastic: Encounters and ~ew i ~tihngDs.°~:Varrat1ve_ Tra_ditions. Ed. Francesca Billiani and Gigliola Sulis. Cranbury NJ: nication are nuanced, realistic, and striking, they have been basically ignored ar1 e1g 1ck.inson University Press, 2007. 15-31. ' by Animal Studies' scholars. Animal Studies scholarship can provide a new ;:reton, Andre. "~ranz Kafka." Minotaure (Winter 1937): 7. 11 dg~ater: Patrick. Kafka, Gothic and Fairytale. Amsterdam: Rodopi 2003 lens on some of Morante's work, and Morante's depictions of animals and 11 ll z::a11'. Dmo. "Le case di Kafka." Corriere della Sera. March 3 I I 96S In B t · ·1 ( orriere Corrie d ll S "'! , · uzza 1 e r animal-human communication have a great deal to offer Animal Studies. i · . . re e a. era 187u. 1986 Dieci anni e un secolo. Ed. Vittorio Feltri and This chapter is not comprehensive but offers a few suggestions of how Kafka <. I runo RoSSt. M~lan : ~orr~;re della Sera, 1986. 54- 56. and Morante can be productively read together. 14 Comparison with Kafka iiputo-Mayr, Mar1_e Lmse. Kafka ~d Romance Languages. A Preliminaiy Survey." Journal , ofth e Kafka Society ofAmerica : JVew International Series 27 no.1 -2 (2003)· 5-6 < 11puto Mayr M L · d J · ' · · may help underscore unusual elements of Morante's work, put her into con­ f'ri~a a' ane uise ~ uhus M. Herz. Franz Kafka: International Bibliography of versation with other Kafkan authors, and draw the attention of non-Italianists 'Y nd Secondary Lrterature. 1908-1997 (Primary Literature)" 1995-1997 (S _ to the power ofMorante's literary representations. t, '.fwy Luerature). Second Enlarged Edition. Munich: Saur, 2000. ' econ u~'11~:~ , Jj9~9.The Lrves of Animals. Ed. Amy Gutmann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University 1 NOTES ) ' ~;ige li, Conce,~a. "'Soltanto l'animale e veramente innocente.' Gli animali nella Storia di ; sa MoCrante . . Leggere Elsa lvforante: Aracoeli, La storia e fl mondo salvato dei raaazzini I'on1e: arocc1,2003.104-18. o · 1. For notable exceptions of critics who discuss Kafka and Morante in detail, see Gambaro I lHvcn~ort , Guy. Tl~e Hunter Gracchus and Other Papers on Literature and Ai·t and Pupino. ll.C.: Counterpomt, 1997. . Washington 1 2. "Buzzati's book enjoyed a popularity precisely because the success of Kafka, a true )l' l\ngtlsis, Luca. Qualc~sa di piu intimo. Aspetti de/la scrittura ebraica de! Novecento italia- writer, had prepared the ground for the work of his imitator" (Moravia and Elkann 269). . 110. Paris (50). "" '·dNi, Wiylhelm. Franz_Kafka: A Critical Study ofHis Writings. Trans. Sheema Zeben Bueh­ 4. For more on Kafka and Ernst, see Spies 214-22. llL cw ork: Fredenck Ungar, 1968. 5. Kafka's European reception is more complex than this but is beyond the scope of this l'ni :1 I, Ma.~. Odradek. Minotaure (Winter 1937): 17. 1111 111111 article. See, for instance, Caputo-Mayr and Herz. : 1 :.1.uca. "Elsa Morante: A Personal Remembrance." PN Review 14.6, 62 (1988)" 18-22 1 6. See, for instance, Debenedetti (68) and De Angel is (27) on Svevo. ud . .'iigrnund. The u ncanny. Trans. David McLintock. New York· Penguin 2003 . · 7. For more on Kafka's reception as a Jewish author in Italy. sec 7,iolkowski. For more 011 f lt1inhnro, l·: li.sa. "Strategies of Affabulation in Diorio 1938." Unde : Arturo.; Star··The c ft _ 1111 1 Morante's Jcwish.ness. see, for instance. Popoff. ' l.l'J.<<1c1C:s 1!fEl.1·a Morante. S1cf'nnia I .11ca111 r1111e and Sharon Wood eds We~t L fa u ttu. 8. Tmnsl11lion mine unless otherwise in<.lictlfl•d. Morunl I\' •111 \ld lhc ~11u·y c1H 1 11~>,h tn l>unhw l l111 v1;rs1ty Press. 2006. ' · a ye e. n1p11hllsl1 "I .'unmo daµli 11 ·chiali" in hl·r 1;oll11(;lh111., II 1:io1 ·11 .~1 '>"l1 • /• 1 .111.i / ,, ,1d 11//,• 1111dul11so, 64 Saskia Ziolkowski Morante and Kafka 65 Garboli, Cesare. "Elsa Morante: la storia e le sue vittime." II grillo. 23 April 2002. Web. I 0 Splendo°!1i, Ilaria."'Grace' et ' pesanteur': Les met . . Jun. 2013. ~oelt d .Elsa '."forante.,, Italies 12 (2008): 319-4 J. aphors animaheres dans La Storia et Ara- ---.II gioco segreto. Milan: Adelphi, 1994. Weil, Kar1. Thmkmg Animals· Wh A · I . , Gross, Ruth V. "Hunting Kafka Out of Season: Enigmatics in the Short Fictions." A Compan­ Press, 2012. Print. · y mma Studies Aow? New York: Columbia University ion to the Works of Franz Kafka. Ed. James Rolleston. Rochester, !\TY: Camden House, Whitlark, James. Behind the Great Wall· A Post J. . 2002. . CranbW}', NJ: Associated University Press I 9~tmgian Approach to Kafkaesque Literature. Ham, Jennifer, and Matthew Senior, eds. Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western Ziolkowski, Saskia. "P1imo Levi and Jewish' K De. . . ,, History. New York & London: Routledge, 1997. America 35136 (20I0-2011 ): 76-89. a a m Italy· Journal of the Kafka Society of Hogle, Jerrold E. "Introduction: the Gothic in Western Culture." The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Ed. Jerrold E. Hogle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: Schocken Books, I 971. Print. ---. Die Erztihlungen und andere ausgewiih/te Prosa. Ed. Roger Hermes. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1998. ---. The Transformation ("Metamo1phosis") and Other Stories. Trans. Malcolm Pasley. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. Kuzniar, Alice. Melancholia's Dog. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Lucamante, Stefania. Elsa Morante e / 'eredita proustiana. Fiesole: Cadmo, 1998. McGowan, Nicoletta Di Ciolla. "A Child with a View: Childhood and Self-Discovery in Mansfield and Morante." l•lew Comparison: A Journal of Comparative and General Liter­ ary Studies. "Legenda": Readingand Writing Myth 27128 (Spring-Autumn 1999): 239-58. Morante, Elsa. Arturo's Island. Trans. Isabel Quigly. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Italia, 2002. ---. Diario 1938. Ed. Alba Andreini. Turin: Einaudi, 1989. ---. History. Trans. William Weaver. Hanover, New Hampshire: Steerforth Press, 2000. Print. ---. L'isoladiArturo. Turin: Einaudi, 1995. ---.La Storia. Turin: Einaudi, 1995. ---.Lo scia//e anda/uso. Turin: Einaudi, 1963. --- . Opere. Cesare Garboli and Carlo Cecchi, eds. 2 vols. Milan: Meridiani Mondadori, 1988 and 1990. Moravia, Alberto, and Alain Elkann. Life of Moravia. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Italia, 2000. Paris, Renzo. Ritratto de// 'artista da vecchio. Conversazioni con Alberto Moravia. Rome: minimum fax, 200 I. Popoff, Gabrielle Elissa. '"Once upon a time there was an S.S. officer': The Holocaust between History and Fiction in Elsa Morante's La Storia." Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 11.1 (2012): 25-38. Porciani, Elena. L 'alibi de/ sogno ne//a scrillura giovani/e di Elsa Morante. Calabria: lride, 2006. Puggioni, Enrica. Davide Segre, un eroe al confine de/la modernita. Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 2006. Pupino, Angelo Maria. Strutture e stile de/la narrativa di Elsa Morante. Ravenna: Longo, 1968. Rosa, Giovanna. Cattedra/i di carta : Elsa Morante romanziere. Milan: II saggiatore, 1995. Print. Rothfels, Nigel. Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo. Baltimore, MD: Jolu1s Hopkins University Press, 2002. Scholtmeijer, Marian. "What is ' human'? Metaphysics and Zoontology in Flaubert and Kafka." Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History. Ham and Senior 127-44. Sgorlon, Carlo. Invito a/la /ettura di Elsa Morante. Milan: Mursia, 1988. Simons, John. Animal Rights and the Politics ofLiterary Representation. New York: Pal grave, 2002. Spies, Werner. Kunstgeschichten von Bi/dern und Kunst/em im 20. ./alrr/111nd('r/. Vol. I. C • lci!/.ne: OuM0111, 1998. Elsa Morante's Politics of Writing

Rethinking Subjectiv~ty, History, and the Power ofArt

Edited by Stefania Lucamante

, .. A llU .1:1u II l)l(' K I NSON UN I YLRSl'l'Y PIU ·: ss M11di:~o 11 • T 111 • •k Contents

Acknowledgments Published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press IX Copublished by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. Introduction 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Stefania Lucamante

Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE 11 4AB I: New Approaches to Morante's Oeuvre 17 1 Elsa Morante's Correspondence: A New Source for the Artist's Copyright © 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield Biography 19 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any fonJ? or by any Daniele Morante electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retneval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote 2 Writing: A Lifelong Affair: Notes from the Elsa Morante Archives 27 passages in a review. Giuliana Zagra 3 In the Realm of the Lie: The Implosion of Thought and the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Monsters of Reason in Menzogna e sortilegio 39 Francesco Chillemi Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 4 Morante and Kafka: The Gothic Walking Dead and Talking ElsaMorante's politics of writing: rethinking subjectivity, history, and the power of art / Stefania Animals Lucarnante. 53 pages cm Saskia Ziolkowski Includes bibliographical references and index. 5 Elsa Morante: Envisioning History ISBN 978-1-61147-794-8 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-1-61147-795-5 (electronic) 67 I. Morante, Elsa, approximately 1912-1985-Criticism and interpretation. I. Lucarnante, Stefania, Sarah Carey editor. 6 Excursus as Narrative Technique in La Storia PQ4829.061 5Z614 2015 75 858'.91209-dc23 Sharon Wood 2014037506 7 "The World Must Be the Writer's Concern": Elsa Morante's Visions of History 87 ~i-" The pupcr used in this puhlicnli\>111111.: 0:.ts the rniniin111~1 n.:quir~111L·n.1~ of American Ste.fi.mia Lucamante Nationul S1n11durd for lnfol'mation Sdon · •1. l 1n111:incnl'l,. ol l 111pu1· lor l'n11ti.;d L1hn11",1' Mill~\l'i:ils, ANSl/ NISO /ll).'IK• i

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