Nella “Voragine pietosa”: Corpo e controllo in La storia e Aracoeli di Elsa Morante

Abstract

The essay proposes the analysis of existing interrelations between body and control in La Storia and Aracoeli by Elsa Morante. The aim is to emphasise in these two novels how the body assumes value of object on which to try exerting dominance in order to preserve the ego. The body is understood here as a collection of imagined and symbolic experiences (Maffesoli, 2013). The methodological approach of the essay is based on Shilder’s psychoanalytic theories. He argued that there was a constant exchange between our own corporal image and that of others; therefore, this exchange can create relations between psychological impulses and some aspects of the body image. Besides, through a phenomenological approach and the Judith Butler reflection about power, the essay shows how, in the Morante novels, the female protagonists’ body control over their children (exercised unconsciously) is a repossession desire of their own past.