This thesis examines the concept of intimate suffering in the narratives of Alberto Asor Rosa, Esther Tusquets and Elsa Morante during a historical period marked by the collapse of the Italian and Spanish Fascist regimes. The critical perspectives developed are: the explicit perception of intimate suffering; the process of becoming aware of intimate suffering and the reactions to it; the interaction between physical and psychological suffering; the methods of communicating intimate suffering to a community; the obstacles to perception of intimate suffering and its fictional representation, and W1derstanding and decoding implicit suffering. The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter One discusses and documents the existing critical scholarship on Tusquets, Asor Rosa and Morante, while it also introduces the central concepts of 'implicit' and 'explicit' suffering, as proposed in this thesis. Chapter Two investigates the representation of 'explicit' suffering in Tusquets' Habiamos ganado la guerra (2007) and Asor Rosa's L 'Alba di un Mondo Nuovo (2002). The aim of this chapter is to examine the way in which the characters become explicitly and unambiguously aware of the unexpressed suffering within their private spheres and develop the means to express it. Furthermore, this section also considers how the autobiographical genre may contribute to depicting and representing' explicit suffering'. Chapter Three elucidates the transitory process of awareness of intimate suffering from the implicit to the explicit stage, taking Tusquets' Con la miel en los labios (1997) and Morante's La Storia ([1974J 1995) as case studies. This chapter studies the intimate mechanisms and processes manifested in the characters. of both works, as a means of gaining awareness about their intimate suffering, on the one hand; while exploring the genre of auto-fiction and its capacity to feature the discourse of representation and the process of awareness of intimate suffering, on the other. Chapter Four continues and develops the concept of 'implicit suffering', investigating the process through 'which the characters of Morante's L'Isola di Arturo ([1957J 1995) and Tusquets' EI amor es un juego solitario (1979) perceive their intimate suffering indirectly, and are unable to recognise it and deal with it. By drawing on the methodology of Medical Humanities, Gender studies, Comparative Literature, Sociology and Psychology, this thesis introduces a new interpretative framework capable of positioning Morante's, Tusquets' and Asor Rosa's works within the cultural and historical trend of recovery of historic memory, and approaches the crucial aspect of the representation of suffering during the totalitarian regimes of Italy and Spain.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:595787 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Moretti, Christian Gabriele |
| Publisher | University of Kent |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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