L’isola di Demetra e il destino di Kore nella poesia di Dacia Maraini

Abstract

The present essay deals with Dacia Maraini’s early collections of poems: Crudeltà all’aria aperta (1966), Donne mie (1974) e Mangiami pure (1978). The central theme of this critical appraisal of the author’s works is the myth of Demeter and Kore and its relevance to the development of the speaking subject. Tradition places the action of Kore’s abduction by the god of the underworld in Sicily, the island of Maraini’s maternal ancestors and of her early experience with the erotic attachment to her father. Maraini’s poems unfold as the story of a daughter in search of her mother in the island of the two goddesses, and of her encounter with the dual nature of her own subjectivity. The source of this duality in the shaping of a feminine identity can be traced to the interdependence of Kore with Demeter, for the two goddesses are inseparable, and the tale of mother and daughter represents two aspects of the same divinity.