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SCAR NARRATIVE SORE NARRATIVE THE LIQUIDATION OF REALISM IN D'ANNUNZIO'S GIOVANNI EPISCOPO AND LINNOCENTE - ELENA LOMBARDI years 1880-1894, Summary. In the D'Annunzio actively took part in the debate on the future of the novel and in the transition between realism and decadence. This article argues that D'Annunzio s "battle of realism" is fought between two texts, Giovanni Episcopo and L'Innocente, closely composed in 1891, and that it can be best brought to light by comparing the two novels against a psychoanalytical ghost text in which two common and fetishism (as the future of the novel actively took part in the debate on in the transition between realism and deca- D'Annunzio and dence. This article argues that D'Annunzio's "battle of realism" els it is fought Giovanni Episcopo and LInnocente, closely composed in texts, 1891, and that both argued by Barbara Spackman) in L'Innocente. In the years 1880-1894, between two to different events take place: castration in Giovanni Episcopo can be best brought to light by comparing the two nov- against a psychoanalytical ghost text common to both in which two dif- ferent events take place: castration in Giovanni Episcopo and fetishism (as argued by Barbara Spackman) in LInnocente. — The beginning of D'Annunzio's career as a prose writer a phase stretching roughly from 1880, when the first sketches of Terra Vergine appears as appeared, to 1894, when // Trionfo della Morte \^zs published — which the young author explored, as well as exploited, the most important trends of Italian and European literature. Through an impressively voracious process of absorption and regurgitaa complex workshop tion, D'Annunzio in blurs the limits between plagiarism and creation. Italian Verismo, French naturalism, French and English decadence, Russian suggestions and Nietzchean inspirations all collide within the space of a decade, producing a set of tightly knotted prose works, in turn intermingled with the author's poetic production and turbulent private and publishing life. Poetic, narrative coveries, plagiarism each text of this and journalistic experiences, diggings and inventions overlap in and dis- such an intricate fashion that period appears as the product of multiple and often con- tradictory forms of inspiration Quaderni and alignment with contemporary d'ttalianistica. Volume XXVII, No. 2, 2006, 107 literary Elena Lombardi movements and The metamorphic quahty of D'Annunzio's work from being easily labelled by "-isms" authors. tion always prevents his imita- (natu- ralism, decadentism).' By quickly isolating and collecting his three main novels them Rosa," D'Annunzio characterized of fruit ment of — della and most consistent as the best a sentimental/sexual triad that follows the develop- male hero from a fundamentally self-resembling When over-man.' local late decade this (// Piacere, "Romanzi L'Innocente, Il Trionfo della Morte) under the joint tide organizing his work local dandy to for the National Edition in the 1920s-30s, D'Annunzio positioned the three novels as volumes 12-14, third to fifth of the "Prose di romanzi," preceded ing his youthful, shorter, is allegedly and very much debated, Particularly elusive, ism," that and more is by two volumes gather- realistic works: the collection D'Annunzio's relation with "real- and the relation with Italian verismo in the stories of Terra Vergine with international naturalism in Giovanni Episcopo and the Novelle della Pescara tempo" of "mythical" realism (not to mention the even more problematic with La Piglia di 1904). Critics agree that these labels never fully Iorio, "terzo D'Annunzio's early work and often prefer talking about "primitivism" or At the same time, the impact of Italian and international thetic naturalism." ism on D'Annunzio's work Piacere as breaking is away from stile decadentismo in Michelis, e and "Incontri di dannunziano," "D'Annunzio D'Annunzio; Goudet, D'Annunzio L'universo dei sensi. " E io vorrei - Terra Vergine e palese -così- il il letter to the editor al français" verismo dannunziano;" secolo;" Giannantonio, when // Trionfo Treves of June 15, 1894: - qualche cosa di comune. sotto un titolo generale che di psicopatia una ristampa - comprenderli dovrebbe essere sovrapposto symbolisme already evident at the time is completed. See the in et le il romanzi hanno - come studi tre De D'Annunzio romanziere, Raimondi, colla cultura francese (1879-1894);" Ciani, Storia idea of the "cycle of the rose" W2.S Verga" and "Naturalismo e romanzo europeo di fine Letteratura e artificio di DAnnunzio. Andreoli, "D'Annunzio e Morte e simbolismo;" Tosi, "D'Annunzio il di un libro dannunziano; Gibellini, "Questi survival of nat- Morte. For D'Annunzio's prose and his Gabriele D'Annunzio" in Studi dannunziani, 71-306; Tutto "D'Annunzio della real- perceive // of appropriation of Italian and international models see Paratore, "Problemi di The critics movement, some extend the this uralistic structures until // Trionfo della strategies some undeniable, and while fit "aes- singoiar titolo di ciascun volume. Diverrebbe più mio intendimento e resterebbe completo e chiuso il ciclo" {Lettere ai Treves, 134). (Just like studies in psychopaty, these three novels have something al title, in common. In a reprint I would which would be superimposed intention would be, therefore, clearer like to gather to the particular and the closed [translation mine]). — 108 — cycle title them under a gener- of each volume. My would be completed and 3 Scar Narrative "Le primavere della mala pianta" Episcopo) and Le Novelle - Sore Narrative (voi. 10, Terra vergine della Pescara (voi. 11). The and Giovanni actual composition of these texts, in contrast to their well-planned sequencing, was rather chaotic and complex. The and ralism the rebellious breaking away from the standards of natu- steering toward decadent inspiration in II Piacere (1888) first draft: of Morte (published // Trionfo della L'Invincibile in 1890) and in a journal series as followed by what appears as a resuscitation of real- is ism with Giovanni Episcopo, quickly re-buried with L'Innocente. Moreover, the reworking of the short stories was carried complex process of revision on through the long and and rewriting that unfolds through four col- lections ("II hbro delle Vergini," 1884; "S. Pantaleone," 1886; "Gli idolatri," 1892; "I violenti," French public with Episcopo and ten short stories) work 1892), the presentation of his early (1895, comprised of Giovanni Episcopo et C.ie and the arrangement of the Novelle final to the della Pescara (1902). D'Annunzio's ness of, restless and participation experimentation with models implies an awarein the vital crisis affecting the that time, a crisis that revolved European novel around the extenuation of the social at impact of naturalism, the complication of psychologism and the surge of the decadent novel. As early as 1888 D'Annunzio recorded in his journalistic writ- ings the "agony" of naturalism, envisioned as the inability of the writers to reconcile the exactitude of external description with the interest for psy- When chological investigations.'^ returning to the problems of the novel in ^For the complex evolution of the Novelle and the key-role of the French Episcopo, un see Ciani, Storia di "L'Ultimo romanzo" parola, incoerenti. niscon mai smo così in La dannunziano. libro La Tribuna, May 26, 1888: "I loro romanzi sono, in una descrizion naturalistica e l'analisi psicologica pienamente e perfettamente da proporre vero d'opera d'arte. La descrizione de' luoghi e mai messa d'accordo con è quasi naggio.' le speciali Questo fondamentale error delli avvenimenti, in are, in one word, incoherent. The analysis never join so fully and somma, non letterario de' romanzieri naturalisti trasforle cose anteriori esistano indipendentemente, e che quindi debbano avere per umani una medesima apparenza" vi s'u- condizioni intellettuali del 'perso- mati proviene da un errore scientifico. Essi credono che fiiori di noi, non e vivente organi- {Scritti giornalistici, tutti gli spiriti 1193-97). (Their novels naturalistic description and the psychological perfectly as to proffer a true and living artistic organism. In other words, the description of places and events never agrees with the particular intellectual conditions of the character. This fundamental literary mistake of the transformed naturalist novelists comes from a scientific mistake. They believe that anterior things exist outside of us, independently, therefore, they must appear the same to every — 109 — human and that, being [translation mine]). Elena Lombardi 1892-93 (with romanzo "Il Frammento futuro. uno studio di sull'arte nuova," "L'Arte letteraria nel 1892. La prosa" and "La morale di Zola"), 5 D'Annunzio targeted the shortcomings of both the pessimism associated with French naturalism and the excessive compassion characteristic of the from Slavic school, thus distancing himself of recent inspiration,"^ his most conspicuous sources and envisioned the greatness of the future novel in the authors' capacity to posit "their spirit" at the centre of the novel and to -'"Il romanzo futuro" appeared on La Domenica di Don Marzio in January 1892 in Tosi, "Incontri di D'Annunzio colla cultura francese," 59-63; and can be read "LArte letteraria nel reprinted in Pagine 1992" appeared on 1993 and can be read in July December 1892, and in Le Cronache de La Tribuna, 658-77. For in detailed discussion of these articles and is a French debate on the their debt to the G. Huret's Enquête sur novel, especially to Mattino II 544-50; "La morale di Zola" appeared on La Tribuna disperse., l'évolution littéraire (1891), see Tosi, "Incontri." See romanzo "Il futuro:" "Nella storia della letteratura di questo ultimissimo periodo due sono i gruppi di fenomeni importanti più degni di studio: - simismo occidentale simismo sistematico tolstoiana, morale evangelica predicata dagli e la degli scrittori di Francia tendono ambedue ad un quanto la effetto distruttivo. slavi. Tanto il pes- il pes- più recente predicazione L'uno dimostra l'inutilità degli sforzi e la spaventosa vacuità della vita; l'altra rinnega ogni civiltà e ogni progresso a benefizio delle idee di rinuncia. Ambedue dottrine sono ingiuste le pur sempre respinte nel loro eccesso, false e ristrette; e vecchie specialmente, dalla scienza e dalla sori del conoscenza dei tempi nuovi. Ora appunto Rinascimento hanno per compito sposizione di un concetto penetrati di condoglianza. are dopo reazione contro le gli artisti precur- due dottrine e l'e- della vita più giusto e profondo. Se gli ultimi libri occi- sono troppo duri contro l'Uomo, dentali rità, la Una semplice e i libri dei narratori slavi virile giustizia sono troppo venga dopo tanta seve- tanta pietà." (In the history of the literature of this latest period, there two groups of important phenomena that are worth studying: the Western pessimism and the evangelic morale preached by the Slavs. The systematic pes- simism of French writers and the more recent Tolstoian preaching both tend to One be destructive. demonstrates the uselessness of any effort and the emptiness of life; the other denies any ciation. cially, old. The artists that are doctrines and books and progress new the precursors of the Renaissance promote a fairer with the too steeped in condolence. and such piety [my and of ideas of renun- restrictive; times reject them. must and deeper concept of human A in favour in their excess, fake science and knowledge of the are too harsh severity civilization Both doctrines are unjust and, espe- Now, react against these life. If the latest the two Western being, the books of the Slavic narrators are simple and translation]). 110 virile justice must come after such — Scar Narrative - Sore Narrative dispense with the "fictions" elaborated by others. ^ Thus, between 1888 and 1892, D'Annunzio framed the "problem of realism" while at the same time detaching himself from it. The purpose of this article is L'Innocente, quickly and The —and of the two in a less romanzo novel, as described in "11 new futuro, prima dote plici [...] la virtù dello stile sarà allora credo che da oggi in poi la dell'artista futuro. diffìcile concepimento penso, lo sforzo di quelli ormai inutili e una la memorie virtù di creazione pura e la genesi dell'opera unica powerfìil and at the non sempre first it appears) needs same time very simple the virtue of pure creation [...] Moreover, (Now, characteristic of the future artist. means of expression [...] 1 le vorranno del loro spirito collocato nel centro della vita." than sarà Tale sarà, io [...] parola. Rigettando per altri artefici della But, in order to be effective, this characteristic (difficult to explain difficult In oltre [...] e severi scrittori loro forza e tutta la loro pazienza saranno indeed, sincerity, pure sincerity will be the much more effi- medesimo tempo sem- intollerabili finzioni elaborate dai predecessori, essi soltanto scrivere la Ma questa dote che non sembri) ad essere produzione dei grandi copiosa e che fin da principio tutta il stands, accord- copious but more concentrated production: "Ora a punto per noi esplicarla intera: assai più intese a favorire " author, in the strength of the cace ha bisogno di mezzi d'espressione potentissimi e nel io texts author's stylistic devel- the superficial differences that invite the reader to label sincerità, l'assoluta sincerità sarà la (diffìcile 1891, after D'Annunzio fin- in editorial separation ing to D'Annunzio, in the sincerity of the and creative ground, the Giovanni Episcopo and texts, L'Innocente was elevated as the central novel of the "cycle of ^The renovation of the style, on the that minor "document" of the Episcopo ^2s relegated as a the Rose"^ show composed closely ished his military service. opment while to is fought between two "battle of realism" it in whole, that are very the virtue of style will then be believe that from now on the pro- duction of great and serious authors will not be copious and that, from the beginning, genesis of their strength all one unique work and patience [...] will This will be, tend to foster the conception and I believe, the effort fices of language. Finally rejecting forever the useless elaborated by their predecessors, they will only their spirit as located in the After an two initial texts artistic This attitude but, at the to write the memories of [translation mine]). On to letterario is same time, deeply connected to the evolution of the recorded in the 1892 dedication to Matilde Serao (for way the novella was presented to its French edidocumented by Ciani {Storia di un libro dannunziano-, the one hand, Episcopo and the short stories are just "un documenche può suscitare la curiosità di coloro quali vogliono seguire lo see below) and Georges Hérelle, 12-16). arti- followed independent paths and Episcopo was regarded as a quasi-failed writer. tor, want of those intolerable fictions attempt to join Episcopo and L'Innocente in one publication, the work which middle of life and now also in the as i — Ili — Elena Lombardi Episcopo as a more conceal the close and L'Innocente "realistic" as a more "decadent" and complex relationship between the two texts. work,'^ Indeed they compose a diptych, not only because of the close time range in which composed the two were {Episcopo is dated January 1891, L'Innocente completed between April and July of the same v^2ls year), or because they are both confession narratives that involve a "crime without punishment" type of plot, but also because they confront the same concerns mio ingegno sviluppo del might listed in the 1888 uneasy relation between the external exactitude of naturalism article (the incite the curiosity e del mio metodo" (14) (a who want to follow literary document that the development of of those my mind and method [my translation]). On the other hand, in the note in which D'Annunzio was suggesting biographical details to the translator, Episcopo is described (like in the dedication) as a crucial step in the activity of the prose''\1 writer: Roma Episcopo et Cie fu scritto a nel Gennajo 1891; e l'autore nella curiosa prefazione messa innanzi all'edizione italiana analizza lo stato della sua dopo quel lungo coscienza d'artista, del piccolo libro ricomincia do notando l'attività del Triomphe de col la e forzato désoeuvrement, e descrive la genesi nuovi elementi entrati nella sua i Mort la serie dei Romans de la {'Enfant de volupté, apre una nuova serie, mostrando di studio a certi morbosi stati della coscienza in January 1891. The author umana ma ['Episcopo voler limitare il suo di voler esercitare la sua et OVwas written in in his curious introduction to the Italian edi- tion analyzes the state of his artistic conscience after that long and forced désoeu- vrement, and describes the genesis of that booklet noting the which entered Con Rose incominciata con non campi" (16) {Episcopo facoltà di rappresentazione in diversi Rome arte. prosatore e continua senza interruzione. Egli, chiuden- With into his artistic work. new elements Episcopo the activity of prose-writer begins again and continues without interruption. Ending with Triomphe de Mort he opens a new tain Romans de the series of the morbid series, human pretation in several fields is which [my la started with l'Enfant de volupté, showing that he does not want of the states la Rose, to limit his studies to cer- conscience, but to exercise his faculty of inter- translation]). As Martignoni not included in the 1906 edition of Prose Scelte, excerpts from the Novelle. In writing to Treves in 191 recalls (vi), Episcopo which includes, 1, D'Annunzio instead, describes Episcopo as an old work, detested and despised. See Lettere ai Treves, 409: "In set- timana ti rimetter manderò Episcopo. Siimi indulgente. Tu sai quanto mi sia increscioso mani nelle vecchie opere che detesto e dispregio." (This week I will 1 le send you Episcopo. Be indulgent. You to old As works which for Terra Vergine a partial critics I detest and Le Novelle and uneasy label, and it is for me to go back translation]). della Pescara, for Episcopo too "realism" critics' tend to perceive the novella striking contrast know how shameful and despise [my is only opinions are divergent. Overall, however, as substantially "realistic" in nature, and a with respect to the preceding Piacere and the following Innocente. — ni — Scar Narrative - Sore Narr.'\tive and the internal complexity of psychologism), and, especially, because they share a common source of inspiration: the newest and, for D'Annunzio, quite transient Russian vogue L'Innocente, as is — Dostoevsky for Episcopo and Tolstoy for traditionally understood. '^ In this short phase, further De For the Russian influence on D'Annunzio, see letteratura italiana;" Paratore, "D'Annunzio e Michelis, "Dostoevskij nella romanzo il russo; Giovanni Episcopo, l'Innocente Dostoevskij." As critics explain, the Russian vogue D'Annunzio through France: Russian prose had been made e translation during the 1880s and had Martignoni, " '' "Introduction" to Giovanni Episcopo znd Traina, is channelled to available in French attracted the attention of the Italian liter- ary audience, which interpreted Dostoevsky as a naturalistic and positivistic writer (Martignoni, xiii). Traina {'' Giovanni Episcopo, llnnocente e Dostoevskij," 14 1), notices that D'Annunzio's reception of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and dominated by French symbolist and Critics is guided naturalist culture. were quick to accuse D'Annunzio of plagiarism from Dostoevsky, namely, from the short story Kròtkaja, of which Episcopo appeared almost as a translation and from the character of Marmeladov Crime and Punishment. in Martignoni points out that the spectrum of Dostoevsky s Episcopo za:' le is much wider (see xvi-xix). Giacon ("II fondo converged in texts that della perduta 'innocen- 'invenzioni' di Tullio Hermil"), points also to Maupassant's L'Assassin. Finally, Paratore {Studi dannunziani, 106 and 232) denies tout court the "Russian The connection," interpreting Episcopo as a prime example of a native verismo. use of Tolstoy in L'Innocente is, at the same time, more declared and more manipulative. Without entering into details, theTolstoian agenda a part is pressed onto of the background ol the novel, the rural one, involving the family estate in the country, the farmer Giovanni di Scordio, the saintly mother of the main character and, especially, his brother Federico, of ventisette anni Federico; aveva vissuto quasi sobria e laboriosa; pareva portare in sé raccolta possedeva la whom we sempre la nella read: "Aveva allora campagna, d'una mite sincerità Regola. Leone Tolstoi, baciandolo su la vita terrestre. Egli bella fronte serena, lo avrebbe chiamato suo figliuolo" (413) ("My brother was seven-and-rwenty; he had lived almost his whole life in the country, a he seemed to have gathered into himself possessed the Rule of Life. Leo Tolstoy all the life of sobriety and labour, and warm would have Translations for excerpts from L'Innocente, except sincerity of the earth. Fie him son" [59]. indicated, are taken from rejoiced to call when the translation by Georgina Harding). Truly opposed to this kind of simplistic Tolstoian idealism are the main characters Tullio and Giuliana, whose deception and criminal plans sharply contrast with and constantly undermine the Tolstoian plot, which stands for the serenity, health, and justice incompatible with the decadent character. Direct quotations from War and Peace are inserted in a lengthy passage Giuliana, (427-31), which sums up the above-mentioned whose adulterous pregnancy has not yet been revealed, is contrast. caught read- ing and underlining passages from the Russian novel, which both serves to estab- — 113 — Elena Lombardi marked by and future work a forced break for the military service, past converge on the stage of a "final renovation," which entails the liquidation of the questionable realism of which D'7\nnunzio had followed and precipitated the crisis since the beginning of his career. Crucial to connecting the two texts as the two halves of the same ren- ovation is the dedication oî Episcopo to Matilde Serao, written for the 1892 The edition." novella importanza di not regarded is arte," 1025), ario pubblicato a indicare una verso il as but rather an ("non ha per artistic result "un semplice documento as primo sforzo istintivo di un me letter- artefice inquieto (1025; "simply a literary document pub- finale rinnovazione" lished to signal the first instinctive effort of a restless artist toward a final D'Annunzio recounts the renovation" [translation mine]). sion during his time in the service ("Mi pareva che tutte scrittore that all fossero oscurate, indebolite, disperse," 1026) si my tion mine])'- and the resulting disgust, anger mie facoltà di seemed me to sincerità di disdegno, rejected his past him power [translation mine]).'^ Finally, it is idyllic worth past pur non avendo ancóra in sé l'agitazione nuovo potere" (1026) (Never an artist a sincere disdain, even without yet having the tension of his future and undermine the felt for his opera passata con work with such inside and shame he artefice ripudiò la sua dell'opera futura né la coscienza del lish le (it writing faculties were obscured, weakened, dispersed [transla- work, eventually concluding: "Mai maggior literary depres- work nor any conscience of his new nature of the scene. recalling that, as Martignoni notices (xx-xxxi), the short phase of Russian-inspired compassion also pervades the poetry of the years 1890-91 {Elegie Romane, Poema Paradisiaco) and even the author's private cor- respondence with his lover Barbara Leoni. The novella appeared first and was reprinted The gap of the in 1 892 military service underline the temporal, his former works: "Fu completo riposo violenti dentro January 1891, in a journal series for the is remarked upon human and scritto a {Nuova Antologia, Feb-Mar 1891) Neapolitan editor Pierro. artistic Roma, in the dedication in order to distance between these two texts and nel gennaio 1891, dopo quindici mesi intellettuale trascorsi in gran parte fra ozii torpidi una caserma di cavalleria" (1025) (It was written ed in di esercizii Rome, in months of complete intellectual rest, spent for the laziness and violent exercises in a cavalry casern [trans- after fifteen major part among sleepy lation mine]). 1 -^ With respect to his past work, critics agree that the lollowing passage seems to be referring to facevano ira e // Piacere. vergogna. "Certi brani di stile, Mi parevano vacue in qualche mio cui m'ero compiaciuto" (1026) (Certain stylish passages in — 114 — libro di prosa, e false le più lucide forme verbali mi in my prose work made Scar Narrative - Sore Narrative Suddenly, the creative power resurfaces on a winter night, and the story of Giovanni Episcopo leaps in front of the author's eyes as in a vision, its characters surprisingly alive. '"* out to be It is recorded in the novella, which turns powerful than the vision less and itself,'^ certainly inferior to L'Innocente. Ecco, mia cara amica, genesi di questo piccolo libro che io vi dedico. la Penso che troverete qui i primi elementi di una rinnovazione proseguita poi nt\y Innocente con. più rigore di metodo, esattezza d'analisi, semplicità di stile (1028). me angry and seemed oì shame. full me empty and to Incominciavo a vedere, quietudine un fascicolo un lampo, spizio di quella morale, nome il prima strato della riconoscibili memoria ma ad alcun lume profonda che si loro sguardi, (I i non a lightening, umano che doveva il I saw the nel corporea soltanto non ne restò quasi assorbita so qual [...] com- non E con un odore umano, qualche cosa rendere indimenticabili figure of that I un attimo, come la figura lui vecchio, respiravano, palpitavano: avevano name of Giovanni moral one, even before l'in- mise a vivere (innanzi a me? dentro di me?) d'una loro gesti, le loro voci, of a folder the E fronte- soltanto dal risveglio repentino i i di mis- loro aspetti" (1027-28) imagined appearances. became stronger and stronger by the minute. tispiece in lessi sul immediata. Allora quell'uomo dolce e mis- started seeing, in real visual sensation, the iety Quando dal segreto concorso di elementi psichici vita stessa Giulio Wanzer, Ginevra, Ciro, erevolmente basked, I apparenze imaginate. forte. Giovanni Episcopo, d'analisi mia la which in di aver sotto gli occhi le note, per erabile, quel Christus patiens, vita così di non mi parve promossa prensiva intuizione che d'uno minuto, più in vidi la figura dell'uomo: bagliore d' ma word forms, lucid in sensazione visiva reale, le minuto faceva, di si The most fake [translation mine]). When I read And the anx- on the fron- Episcopo, in a second, like the flash of man: not only the bodily figure, but also the was due to some kind of started reading the notes. This comprehensive intuition which wasn't triggered only by the sudden awakening of a stratum of my memory, but also by the secret coming together of psychic elements that were not recognizable in the light of an immediate analysis. So that sweet and miserable man, that Christus patiens started living (in front of me? inside of me?) of such a And deep life that my own life was almost absorbed by his. with him Giulio Wanzer, Ginevra, Ciro, the old man, were breathing, their own gazes, movements, voices, a human smell, somehuman that it made their aspect unforgettable [translation thumping: they had thing so miserably mine]). -^"Ah, mia cara amica, perché ebbi una Perché su la sì fiera visione e feci pagina quel gran flutto di forza my dear friend, why did I si attenuò e have such a strong vision and si sì made such W^y was the great wave weakened on the page and died off? — 115 — una debole opera? spense?" (1029) (Oh, a weak work? [translation mine]). Elena Lombardi my (Here, to you. I dear friend, was continued and analysis The is the genesis of this httle booklet that think you will find here the in L'Innocente with a more rigorous method, a more exact "renovation" which inspires both texts - Bisogna schietta: uomini studiare gli is — One must human study and beings guided by what looks metodo il method rests in this DIRECTLY, things simple without any transposition [translation mine]), a principle directly translated handbook of the contemporary debate on like sta in questa for- DIRETTAMENTE, e le cose senza transposizione alcuna' (1028) (The whole rule: dedicate a simpler sryle [translation mine]). a straightforward principle of realism: "Tutto mula I elements of a renovation that first from the the novel, Huret's Enquête sur l'évolution littéraire (1891).^'^ Upon first reading, Giovanni Episcopo and L'Innocente share number of similarities and ment of the former on all levels: structurally, a consid- the latter seems in fact to be the refine- erable However, how and sente" What is are these two The answer to the "opera futura"? The "the old"? decadentism of stylistically. is necessarily inconsistent. primitivism of the short stories or the extenuated // Piacerei What the new? Episcopo^ Russian inspired is realism (certainly not), L'Innocenté% touch of over-man, and thematically, connected in view of the "opera pre- texts back into decadence with an early fall or even "l'ideai libro" longed for in the introduction 1^ of// Trionfo della Mortê.^^ There are no straight answers to these questions, nor should one trust D'Annunzio's profession of renovation: cious enough confession narratives should two that mark a it is moment suspi- of lit- erary conversion. when submitting In August 1891, D'Annunzio envisioned L'Innocente to the editor Treves, a joint edition with Episcopo, claiming that the novella "ha qualche affinità col romanzo, affinità di forma e di moralità nascosta" ("has a certain affinity with the novel, affinity in the the hidden morality" [translation mine]).''' As Tosi It is notices ("Incontri," 28) this principle intervention of the "neorealiste" Caraguel: "nous tudier les êtres et mito del superuomo e il mondo For the connections between "D'Annunzio form and directly translated sommes, in hypothesis that the from the je crois, à la veille d'é- choses directement, sans transposition aucune." les For traces of the over-man in L'Innocente, see Tosi, is my e il Stefanis, ''L'Innocente. Il " "Il romanzo Oddo De della 'trascendenza deviata'. romanzo futuro" and futuro. "l'ideai romanzo," see La prefazione del Trionfo e le sue fonti francesi." ^See Lettere ai Treves, 94: "Il manoscritto 734 appartengono al romanzo e 180 al si compone di 914 cartelle, delle quali Giovanni Episcopo. Vorrei che questo stu- — 116 — Scar Narrative hidden bond berween the two one which of a quite aggressive texts consists one that liaison, Within the 1891 diptych, fosters their future separation. rative struggle takes place, between Sore Narrative - a nar- will describe shortly as the clash I of narrative and a "sore" type of narrative, arguing a "scar" type that the latter carries within itself the liquidation of realism. Let us instances first we examine the between the two similarities two "confessions," presumably taking place face In both texts. after two "crimes" which involve two "innocent" children and are related to the "betrayal" of a judicial woman. In both cases, an ambiguity between a religious and kind of confession is staged and the events that are going to be nar- rated exhibit the unquiet appearance of human itself, something that escapes both understanding and the divine dimension. Rather than the crime the surfacing of something obscure and hidden in the folds of mem- ory seems to urge the two confessions forward, since both the main char- of murder. In each acters implicitly plead not guilty to the charge case, the confessant appears unreliable. In Episcopo, the confession takes place in the form of a dialogue, with a strong emphasis on the ation. Hidden behind oral quality of the situ- the respectful appellative of "signore," a mysterious interlocutor rules the narration, asking questions, scanning the acters narrative delirium with verbal and openly interacting with The Giovanni.-*^' main char- practical interventions, but never interlocutor serves to underline dio singoiare fosse contenuto nel volume perché è prediletto fra tutta quanta mia opera persona a cui sarà dedicato in prosa dalla affinità col romanzo, affinità di dermi desidero avere la forma unique study to to the novel and 180 to whom book the with the novel, affinity tain affinity to in will is it is comprised of 914 pages, of the favourite I would in like this among my be dedicated. Moreover, form and di deci- Credete voi che ne Giovanni Episcopo. be put in the volume because work of the person Ma prima e di moralità nascosta. la ha qualche libro. Inoltre vostra opinione in proposito. scapiterebbe l'unità del libro?" (The manuscript which 734 belong il prose has a cer- it hidden morality. But before Do you think that the book would be undermined? [translation mine]) For the affinities between the two texts in terms of their relationship to common sources see I decide I would like to hear your opinion on this matter. unity of the Giacon, The "II fondo della perduta 'innocenza'," 108-10. entity of the interlocutor answers to him. See, sarci. as is inferred only examples a call to Perdonatemi, ora andrò dritto fino shouldn't think of it. Forgive me. pitiful diagnosis: "Allucinazione, basterà un lume perché lume, semplicemente Now sì, I alla fine" will (1034) lume. non bisogna pen- (Yes; it's true. go straight on to the end niente altro. Dite bene. io stia tranquillo, un from Giovanni's addresses and order: "Si, è vero, Oh, sì, sì, dite bene: perché io dorma profondo; Grazie, — 117 — grazie caro One [94]); a signore" sì, sì un (1048) Elena Lombardi the fact that Giovanni he is talking about is an unrehable narrator: he constantly forgets what and wanders in senseless digressions. of confusion, the narration this guise sequence of the events. chronological L'Innocente takes the form of In monologue, a However, under organized according to a very is in strict the confession contrast, in which the wide pace of the syntax gives the impression of a written statement. Since the narrator pre- and analytical character, the unreliable quality more hidden and subtle devices, such as the overmemories," the succession of negations and the condensa- sents himself as a very lucid of his story lap of two relegated to is "first around some tion The two texts also setting for each middle specific characters. 2' is show an apparent, even too marked, contrast. Roman perfectly opposite: Episcopo takes place in the class, a setting which the author had never chosen before, obvious homage to his Russian and French sources. To match rity," D'Annunzio partially restrained his style into a its The lower and an "medioc- more concise and crude discourse, not alien, however, to episodes of symbolization.^^ L'Innocente set in the Roman upper class and perspective of two family estates that of // Piacere and // Trionfo. — aristocracy, often language and its The style ftilly seem characters also opposing circumstances: Giovanni, on the one hand, ated, poor, scared and defeated, "il più vile e il is viewed from the rural is compliant with to be borne of these humble and humili- più buono degli uomini" (1046) ("the most miserable and the best of men" [106]), truly a "Christus patiens" (1027); Tullio "non pure uno on the other hand spirito eletto, but an exceptionally rare ma uno spirit" [2]). "impure" Ginevra, and the chaste, Vedete, They [93]). Translations for excerpts indicated, are taken and self-confident, are matched with the cruel, fake, intellectual, "pure" Giuliana.^^ non tremo più" (1033) (Oh, thank you, anymore The arrogant, rich is spirito raro' (362) ("not only a choice sir. You see: I am Ginevra, not shaking from Giovanni Episcopo, except when from the translation by Raymond Rosenthal. Spackman, Decadent inconsistencies in TuUio's statement are outlined in Geneaologies, 145-50. For traces of symbolism the Episcopo see Goudet, D'Annunzio romanziere, 6378; Raimondi, sensi, "D'Annunzio e il simbolismo," 40; Giannantonio, L'universo dei 301-07. '^The specular opposite of Giuliana, Ginevra shares lover, Teresa Raffo. Interestingly, Ginevra is some introduced qualities with TuUio's as "l'assente," a that labels Teresa in L'Innocente. See 1038-39: "Nella conversazione, della assente passò su tutte le bocche, proferito in mezzo a frasi il word nome ambigue che tradivano un desiderio sensuale da cui tutti quegli uomini, vecchi e giovani, erano turbati dell'assente, [...] Mi ricordo che allora poco diversa da quella che mi si formò nell'imaginazione la figura in realtà poi vidi." ("In the conversation — 118 — Scar Narr^^tive - Sore Narraeive nevertheless, gives birth to Giovanni's legitimate son, the beloved Giro, while Giuliana, so incapacitated as to presumably be barren, conceives the mate Raimondo. Noticeable, then, ures, "la sensala" Ginevras human and a polarity illegiti- between the two mother of the two brotherly "la santa;"-"* that father, physically abjection, is fig- figures. Battista, and morally representing the lowest point of and Federico, Tullio's brother, a Tolstoian figure highest point of human ideality; and, finally, that of the one hand the brutal Giulio Wanzer, "quell'uomo forte two and the antagonists: sanguigno on e violento" (1035) ("that robust, sanguine, violent man" [95]); on the other hand the decadent intellectual Filippo Arborio, refined and "la figura fine e attractive face" [43]). Perfectly in seducente" (400) ("the keeping are the violent, bloody death of Giulio Wanzer, caused by Giovanni's only, and and the refined illness that leads useless, the writer Arborio to aphasia and agraphia, much to the satisfaction of Tullio who does not need to face him The obvious outcomes of these oppositions are two "innocent doomed to die: Giro, the beloved legitimate son who succumbs Wanzer's violence; and Raimondo, killed by while still of anger, fit Tullio's in a duel. children " to Giulio premeditated coldness in the cradle. Building on Spackman Michel notion of "dual Riffaterre's Barbara sign," has signalled the existence of a ghost text in L'Innocente, a psy- choanalytical narrative parallel to the textual narrative in which "a differ- ent psychoanalytic tale of haves-who-have-not" takes place: "fetishism. "^5 In the following analysis will extend L'Innocentés ghost text to and argue that the narrativization of another precursor, alytic tale I is at stake here, and one complementary its short familiar psychoan- to fetishism: castration. Thus, the diptych represents the narrativization of a two-fold Freudian theof castration ory: threat vs. fetishism. As synthetically outlined in Freud's "Fetishism" (1927) there are two outcomes of the female (mother's or sister's) genitalia, panic, since, for the first most ful common fear is and unique event the absent time, he that of his ("It is moment to castration, them, it woman's name was on everybody's [. .] . In ^^The is my imagination, that first I one is diversity." which lips, all woman is I The one is first and seen as a dread- me ..."). The spoken amid ambiguous a figure of the absent later actually met" [98-9]). introduced in absentiahy the screams of her husband beating; the second of the those men, old and young. remember, there then took form was not very different from the boy's vision can happen to phrases betraying a sensual desire which perturbed woman little that induces a feeling of aware of "her own happened a whom she always accompanied by extremely light and delicate religious images. -^Decadent Genealogies, 169-83, quote at 179. — 119 — Elena Lombardi complex mechanism that allows second is deny the same time the existence of the maternal at fetishism, a new and analyzed in light of the ghost and surprising way, and two novels the text, interact in a indirect refractions take the place of the too What obviously marked opposition. locus, to affirm of castration. to bypass the horror When him phallus, and, therefore, an accomplished event in Giovanni Episcopo in a definite is disposition within the text, delineated its by a closed narrative structure and connoted by unique images, passes movement, with L'Innocente as an echoing in a significantly staggered trajec- tory, producing events, structures and images which are open, and there- fore reproducible, and destined, turn, in move on toward to other D'Annunzian works. The meeting between the psychoanalytical and the around the literary text takes place wound, which harks back, figure of a with an inverted perspective, from Giovanni to Giuliana: a closed wound, from both a physical and narrative point of view, wound Episcopo; a refer, in always open, i.e. a scar, in Giovanni Both wounds a sore, in L'Innocente. i.e. the psychoanalytic text, to an event of castration. Giovanni Episcopo^ narration begins with a Giro, but, at the request of the interlocutor to memory of the dead son the story in order, "from tell the beginning" [94], Giovanni recalls his fear of his antagonist, Giulio Immediately Wanzer.'^' wounded by he meets him, Giovanni after Giulio Wanzer on the forehead. mentioned throughout the obsessively text, The result accidentally is a visible scar, is the locus of an "obscure and deep feeling" and a mark of humiliation and emasculation. 2'' Giulio "Provavo una sensazione strana, che io non un misto di repulcome un fascino cattivo, assai violento mandava verso di me tanto vi so esprimere: sione e di attrazione, indefinibile. Era qualche cosa cattivo, che quell'uomo forte sanguigno e debole, anche allora, e malaticcio, e irresoluto; (1035) sion ("I and had a strange feeling, attraction, indefinable. that robust, sanguine, violent which was It man irresolute; and, to tell the truth, non tratto, con la stessa facilità vi so definire, dalla cicatrice. giorno, il mio per esempio, E non mi an like exerted over me, so [95]). mi very evil, which and then, sickly levò ogni senso di dignità umana, con cui mi avrebbe strappato un capello il vile" mixture of revul- evil fascination, something of a coward" vi so spiegare carnefice veramente, un poco e, can't quite express: a weak See, for example, at 1036: "Colui d'un I cosi, [...] Io sentimento profondo e oscuro che mi veniva il gran turbamento che m'invase, quando, un prese la testa fra le mani per guardare questa cicatrice che era ancóra tenera a tutta accesa; e sopra ci passò un mese non si vedrà più nulla. Puoi ringraziare 'E chiusa perfettamente. Fra Iddio'. Mi un bollo le dita più volte, e poi disse parve in vece, da quel minuto, di avere in fronte servile, un segno vergognoso e visibilissimo, — 120 — non una cicatrice ma per tutta l'esistenza." ("He Scar Narrafive - Sore Narrative Wanzer's sudden departure opens a gleam of hope for Giovanni, a hope of regaining his lost dignity, and, with Entrai a testa crudele: - Sei marcato to (I modo il walked mi compiacqui me my memory thief." —Since I felt it's a I wound duello. il I struck up hat reminded non venne nessuno felt that me Unable to reclaim facility me thought: "What can received in a duel." a conversation, human executioner took reawakened The my in at my they think? —And I, a forehead and had They most who would likely never have someone had come to sit next would have found a way to to [104-05]). Giovanni transfers his hopes as well as all his son.^^ As soon suddenly, with the same dignit)', just like that, can't explain to you, And enormous perturbation my head between tender and completely red. said: "It's air [...] profound, obscure emotion that that scar inspired in me. can't explain the then scar, (1045). proud certainly I nobody came his virility, of all sense of venu- fosse marked on the brow by with which he would have tweaked out a hair for example, the I my a attributes of excellence, courage, honour onto the virile robbed of had I was looking that everyone describe that duel. But - Che crederanno? - E io, che non mi Ma fought, was pleased by this thought. If me and la frase pareva che tutti qualcuno in questo pensiero. Se the cruel sentence: "You've been noticed the mark, think ferita ricevuta in duello. head held high. my segno, pensai: il memoria Come mi e avesse attaccato discorso, io certo avrei trova- di raccontargli in, of taking off act una L'atto del levarmi [...] risvegliò nella da un ladro.- in fronte e notassero to a sedersi accanto a mi la cicatrice, in fronte forse che sia sarei battuto, his masculinity: pareva di avere un'aria fiera rammentò mi guardassero Crederanno Mi alta. cappello mi il it, He his it seemed hands month to . .] that swept over I me one day when to look at this scar passed his fìnger over healed perfectly. In a thank the Lord." Instead [. you'll me from it a which was my still number of times and see a thing. You can no longer that moment on bore on I my forehead not a scar but a mark of servitude, a shameful, very visible sign that would remain there for my entire life [95-6]). See 1077: "In breve seppe leggere, scrivere; superò progressi straordinarii" ("In short, he learned ahead of all where Ciro his classmates; tells his father how tutti i suoi compagni; fece to read, to write, he was well he made extraordinary progress." [135]) and 1090, how he defended his mother against Wanzer: "- Credi mi sia nascosto? Credi tu che io sia stato fermo, che io abbia avuto paura? No, no; non ho avuto paura. Mi sono fatto innanzi, io; mi sono messo a gridargli contro; l'ho afferrato per le gambe, gli ho dato un morso a una tu che io mano..." ("Do you think No. no, by the I wasn't afraid. legs, I bit his I I hid? Do went up you think to him; I I just stood there began yelling hand..." [147]). — 121 — at him; and was I afraid? grabbed him Elena Lombardi as Ginevra tells Ciro the truth about his father's scar,29 the events in the narration rush toward Giro's uneven fight with Giulio Wanzer and the murder of the boy. The theme of wound-castration L'Innocente: not only because into many wounds (on other plays a very different does not heal, nor because it it on the hands, on the the trees, role in refracted is landscape), it is performed on a woman's body. Since it is inflicted more than once on the same body, on the same member that has but mainly because capacities of regeneration, Promethean Spackman shows Giuliana is first Gostanza, the in her chapter introduced who sister opens the narrative structure of reproduction and amputation. As possibilities infinite to itself it "Prometheus and Pandora" (168-83), as a suffering sister, rimpianto senza fine" (363) (leaving a void in moment until a [3]),^° filled modeled on the "unique" died at the age of nine "lasciandomi nel cuore un my heart that had never been of panic (Giuliana's sudden sickness that Tullio interprets as an attempted suicide) reveals her "diversity," upon which the surgeon's instruments must intervene. Through them, "beyond" them the "Wound" E una che i appears: disperata pietà strinse ferri del le mie viscere d'uomo, per quella creatura ma chirurgo violavano non soltanto nella carne miserabile "[Ginevra] mi disse, accennando allo sfregio, sapendo di farmi male: '-Te ne dimenticato, di Wanzer? anche gli occhi di Ciro E pure si ti ha lasciato in fronte fissarono su la mia un E cicatrice. bel ricordo ...' sei Allora, io gli lessi in volto le 'Come? domande Non mi raccontasti una volta che t'eri ferito cadendo? Perché mentisti? E chi è E chi è quest'uomo che t'ha sfregiato?'" (1080) ("And she said to me, alluding to ch'egli avrebbe voluto rivolgermi. Avrebbe voluto chiedermi: the scar, knowing she would hurt me: "You After he did leave a fine souvenir on your forehead. all haven't forgotten Wanzer, have you? ." . Then Ciro also stared my scar. And I could read on his face all the questions he wanted to He wanted to ask me: "How is that? Didn't you once tell me that you at cut yourself? Why did you And who lie? is ask me. fell and this man later connected to the Tolstoian plot that gave you the scar?"" [138]). Interestingly, the sororal aspect (for which see footnote 10). of Giuliana is While reading War and Peace, nell'attitudine e nello sguardo era dolce ed era buono. di simile al sentimento che avrei forse provato se io avessi mo luogo, sotto ta, la povera gli olmi familiari che perdevano sorella, al fianco di i "tutto in E nacque in lei, veduto in quel medesi- loro fiori morti, Costanza adul- Federico" (427-28). ("She seemed to diffuse an atmosphere around her of sweetness and kindness, which awoke in same sentiment and sitting there as I should have veramente, me qualche cosa felt had under the old familiar I seen Costanza grown to trees at Federico's side [Id]). — Ill — me much the womanhood Scar Narrative Sore Narr/\tivf. - donna possa nell'intimo dell'anima, nel sentimento più delicato che una - una custodire: pietà per quella e per le altre sane, così imperfette, uguagliate alle impone della Natura; che E a loro il morbi orrendi, travaglia di ci, le [...] mal- così deboli, così femmine brute dalle leggi inabolibili diritto della specie, sforza le loro matri- le lascia esposte a tutte le degenerazioni. con in quella e nelle altre rabbrividendo per ogni fibra, io vidi allora, una lucidità spaventevole, vidi la piaga originale, la turpe ferita sempre aperta "che sanguina e che pute" (373).' (a desperate sense of pity wrung my very vitals for the unhappy creature, not alone whose flesh the surgeon's knife was rudely penetrating, but the inner sanctuary of her being, the very centre of the most hidden and delicate The sentiments a woman possesses [15]).'^~ woman sight of the castrated adjustment, characterized by doubt 403; she seemed to me another (ella woman is followed by a long period of mi parea 397 and [40 and 47]) and desire. un'altra donna,'' altogether Suspicion and desire become more and more precise, until a •^ It is the interesting to notice that almost the same words are used in new moment same kind of construction, and almost Giovanni Episcopo to express a male-to-male kind of compassion: "E vedere adi per tutto intorno a voi questo nemico, vederlo con una lucidità prodigiosa, scoprirne tutte le tracce, indovinarne tutte le corrosioni, le uomo devastazioni nascoste. Vedere, intendete?, vedere in ciascun comprendere, comprendere sempre, traviato, per come ogni addolorato, e sentire nell'intimo della propria sostanza grande fraternità umana, e non considerare su di questa sofferenza, e la fraterna per ogni una misericordia e avere sconosciuto ... la Intendete? Potete voi intendere questo in me, in me stimate pusillanime e abietto e quasi idiota?" (1058) ("And to see this around you, its to see corrosions, its it with prodigious hidden the suffering in each devastations. man, to nity, and not che voi enemy all To see —you know what comprehend, always to I mean? — comprehend, and wretched person, and to to see to have feel with- own flesh the voice of this great human fraterany man on the street as a stranger... You understand? depths of one's to regard Could you understand abject, voce uomo lucidity, to discern all its traces, divine all fraternal pity for every strayed soul, for every in oneself in the la via nessun this in me, in me whom you regard as pusillanimous, almost idiotic? [117-18]). ^Harding translates this passage only be translated imperfect, as follows: who up to this point. "a piety for her The and the other are equated to female animals rest of the passage can women [. . .] so weak, ill, by the unchangeable laws of Nature, which impose on them the right of the species, constrains their wombs, troubles them with horrendous diseases and exposes them to all kinds of degeneration. In her then with which and in the others I saw, trembling in every part of frightening lucidity, the original sore, the foul 'bleeds and stinks'." — 123 — my body, wound I saw always open, Elena Lombardi of panic Giuliana arises: indicate that the reader first is is pregnant. Two thoughts of the main character encountering the same problem that created the new condition, "Ho toccato have touched a wound that is still episode of panic: Tullio, not yet informed of the wife's but already aware of a difference, seeing her piaghe che sono ancora aperte" (441) open" He [92]). non L'antica, malady? [119]) The — then reflects on her ("I sickness: pallor, thinks: "Ma qual era sua malattia? la distrutta dal ferro del chirurgo?" (464) ("But what was her old original one, not wholly removed by the surgeon's knife?" a dreadful doubt if translated into psychoanalytical terms: "was castration ineffective?" Finally, TuUio's feelings during the delivery confirm on the regaining of a threatening phallus uno strazio fisico, simile forse a lentissima" (565) ("I Giuliana's part: "Soffrivo anch'io quello d'un'amputazione mal praticata e was suffering some such physical torture as would I have done under a slow and badly-managed amputation" [240]). child's murder, a second castration, of dismissal, since the confession is is The moment followed by another bleak neither prosecutable by law, nor does it belong completely to the divine sphere. Once these differences between the tration event is concerned, quences and the it is two texts are set, as far as the cas- interesting to evaluate the narrative conse- literary result of a scar versus a sore type of narrative. Among the there an example that neatly frames the relationships between the ghost- is numerous occasions provided by D'Annunzio's dense psychoanalytical text ic and stylistic and both novels and outcome of these two illustrates the structural, narratives. and a "beyond" type of The example which involves the act themat- deals with the which involves the interplay between a physical type of vision, vision, narrative, act of seeing, of revealing and understanding: the former pointing to the specific events described in the story, the latter to the ghost text. No wonder then that in both texts the sur- facing of the psychological data, of the level of "beyond" (which offers a tool for the construction of the ghost text) of some kind of light in the narrative. is always connected with the presence It is surprising however that the light narrative should have such different results in the In Giovanni Episcopo, the in the text. The first and same first visit two books. of sunlight" recur three times last "strisele di sole" (during Giovanni and Ginevra's "Oh "stripes seem to aptly recall a priori to their conjugal house)^^ and a quel sole, quelle strisce di sole, quasi taglienti, su tutta quella roba nuova, lucida, intatta, che (1068). ("Oh polished, mandava un odore di magazzino, un odore insopportabile!" beams of almost cutting sunlight on all those new, that sun, those untouched furnishings, giving off smell..." [127]). — 124 — a warehouse smell, an unbearable Scar Narrative Sore Narraiivh - posteriori (immediately before Giro's death)^'* in which the same one central scene (1072-73) of sunlight simultaneously illuminate the con- stripes densation and collapse of a wide variety of of narrative confusion reaches its issues. In this scene, articulate report of the recollection of the threat woman. the vision of the chronological detail Initially the focus is of castration implied in on Ginevra. the festivity of All Saints, is the guise apex, but a close reading traces quite an Interestingly, the which precedes the Day of the Dead, implicitly recalled later by wreath of evergreen, a traditional gift for the dead. Ginevra stava campane; Non triste dell'universo. cuore. In tutti (Ginevra was church bells Il sole Il veramente, sole, mi ha un c'è fatto è la cosa le più sempre dolere il po' di sole, qualche riga mortuarie (1072, emphasis mine). window. remember: I was All it Saints' Day; the were ringing; the sun was pouring down on the windowsill. you the saddest thing in the universe. Don't is sun has always made is sembra? alle coltri at the Truly, the sun there vi suonavano ricordo: era l'Ognissanti; miei ricordi più dolorosi i come mx.orno gialla, Mi alla finestra. sole batteva sul davanzale. il my heart suffer. In a little sunlight, a all my few yellow sunbeams agree? The most painful memories as though around mor- tuary drapes. [131]) Through the sunlight stripes, via the simile with the funeral palls, the death of a sister (the diversity?) and, via simile again. Giro's points in the past and in the future are little woman's boy's discovery of two summoned: death (the definite evidence of the possibility of castration). Quando ero bambino, una volta, stanza dove corone di il fiori. Mi momenti pare ancóra di vederlo, quel povero viso bianco tutto viso di Ciro il sorella giaceva sul letto tra Lasciatemi pensare un poco (When I was my sister's lasciarono per alcuni minuti nella sorella giaceva esposto sul letto, tra turchinicce, al quale doveva poi tanto somigliare negli incavato d'ombre ultimi mi cadavere d'una mia a child they i ... once ... Ah, che dicevo? Mia fiori. Ma mia perché? (1072, emphasis mine). left me for a few minutes in a room where corpse was laid out for viewing on a bed, surrounded by wreaths of flowers. I still feel I can see it, that poor white face moments. with purplish shadows, which, during his last much My sister, resembled . . Ah, what was . ^ "Notate, signore, una cosa. le spalle, dunque sopra note, of one thing. sir, sorella, già, Bene; dicevo questo. Da uno I saying? carved my sister lying spiraglio (aperto nella parete a cui volgevo mio capo) scendeva From a tiny window il was turned, and therefore yes, all Giro's face so — above my head — la striscia di sole" set in the wall to slanted [146]). — 125 — down (1088). ("Take which my back a beam of sunlighf Elena Lombardi on the bed, amid the me Let When .. Good; flowers. what that's duto tutti Ah, ecco: una con una intensità la riga gialla, prendete?) Memory becomes 1072). cadaveri ai ... non osavo più una corona Quante (Ah, here it is: I al volte! Campo Verano, voi pensate. Sì; ora [...] per una I what was on a on some chair, a relative's thinking. Yes, indeed, "terrible — one .] in the gray shad- no longer dared turn around, and a corpse. under a spell; but I felt behind . .Oh, sir, wreath of evergreen with a black ribbon I now grave ... to take to the —What a leads to the surfacing of a "horren- that strongly recalls Tullio Hermil's vision —an Verano ceme- memory! You must be have a terrible memory! [131]) power of memory" surgery" quoted above in every . . how many times in my How many times! Very standing at the window [...] Ginevra was saying? So, I also, tery to put hidden [. . very sharp, was gleaming line, straight, which Ginevra and her mother were going dous truth" e la di parenti. seen that tragic streak of sunlight again! There was The rive- the frightening silence of the room, that cold which congeals around I ho tomba terribile (1072-73). ho una memoria stared fixedly at the yellow line, as if me-you understand? nella vita C'era anche, sopra una [...] approached the window, dismayed wickedly, with incredible intensity. have (com- con un nastro nero, che Ginevra ows, a streak of sunlight, a yellow silence me Ebbene, a proposito di che? alla finestra di semprevivi madre dovevano portare Che memoria! voltarmi, e guardavo fisso Ah, signore, quante volte la tragica striscia di sole! - nell'ombra grigia, una [...] silenzio spaventevole della stanza, quel silenzio freddo il [...] "terrible." preso da una fascinazione; e sentivo dietro di Era Ginevra, dunque, che stava life mem- painful riga gialla, diritta, acutissima splendeva sinistramente, incredibile. Io come che è intorno well, Giovanni's strengthens mark of a a io m'accostai alla finestra, sbigottito striscia di sole, sedia, — miei ricordi più dolorosi," "quante volte nella vita ho rive- i la tragica striscia di sole," duto — now turned on Ginevra, the hght connection with the two corpses power of memory. The sunUght beam becomes ory ("in was saying. But why? I [131]). . the passage again focuses in "tragic" think a bit original horror present not only in woman. The sequence "guardare - vedere - "beyond the Ginevra but comprendere" follows the shift from sight to perception to an understanding of female castration ("l'aperta brutalità del sesso," corresponding to "la turpe ferita" in L'Innocentés surgery scene) Non vi to ogni and sanctions the inevitable fear it evokes. accade mai, guardando a lungo una donna, di smarrire d'un nozione della sua umanità, del suo stato timentali che vi avvincono a risce, la bestia, la femmina, lei e di vedere, sociale, dei con una evidenza che vi atter- Questo io vidi, l'aperta brutalità del sesso? — 126 — trat- legami sen- — Scar Narrative - Sore Narrative guardandola; e compresi ch'ella non era atta che a un'opera carnale, a una E funzione ignobile. fondo il una è (Has laidezza. - emotional terrifies all is fondo saw I verità! my ugliness — - umane for a long time at a woman, as and to her, to see, with an obviousness that the sheer femaleness, the blatant brutality of looked I human mind: presentò allo spirito: (1073) at her; and only for the carnal, for an ignoble function. rose in si notion of her humanity, her social condition, the bestiality, what mi di tutte le preoccupazioni when looking to you, which bind you you, the This sex? ties il Orrenda, orrenda suddenly lose to umana, happened ever it un'altra orrenda verità dell'esistenza human all life, I realized that she existed And another terrible truth preoccupations are based on a horrible, horrible truth! [132]) The moment of vision and revelation is unique and incontrovertible. The deadly sunlight beam motif is now attached to all painful memories: when replayed in other sections of the text, it needs only to be pointed to ("quelle strisele di sole," 1068) or The 1088). estingly, the happened same motif to her, so emphasized ("scendeva motif at work in the passage rhetorical it is la striscia di simile, which is, sole,'' inter- that appears in the psychoanalytical text ("As can happen to me ..."). Finally, the image it carries within a reference to the castration event to which the text also alludes: the sunlight stripe On is the contrary, L'Innocentés light-vision device, the "oscillating" flame of a candle, strongly ers metonymy, that fetishism. The dim and mobile ^"^ is, text uncov- It and operates by means of together with synecdoche, the figure of choice of through mirrors, opens and closes —by simultaneously of a candle, often duplicated light in the text three equivocal moments of illuminating and obscuring a hidden truth and embodies the quintessential all undecidability of fetishism. recalls the and obscures key-moments of the ghost vision as a knife. ^5 and "acutissima" (sharp) "tagliente" (cutting) fetishistic strategy: "I know very well, but the same..."^^ -^-'The piercing quality of the sun-stripes is also recalled in Ginevra's piercing gaze directed toward Giovanni's scar: "[Ginevra] anzi tagliente, che dà affilata al mi dava sempre mi fissava con quello sguardo acuto, apprensione che la stessa la vista di un'arme mi guardava la fronte, la cicatrice" cutting look, which already filled me pusillanime. M'accorsi ch'ella (1080) ("She stared at me with her sharp, with the same apprehension an extremely sharp knife inspires in the pusillani- mous. -^ I realized that she On metonymy was staring and synecdoche in at my forehead, at the scar" [138]). connection with fetishism see Spackman, Decadent Genealogies, 191-93. •^^For the "I know very well, mais quand même but all the same" motif see ..." — 127 — O. Mannoni, "Je sais bien, Elena Lombardi The candle first is placed in Giuliana's room, where her sudden sick- The ness induces a panic in Tullio. and candle, "desperately oscillating" redoubled in a mirror, increases the horror: E vedevo in quei larghi occhi passare, come a onde, io sconosciuta e le tende [...] Era di sera, era crepuscolo, e il gonfiavano sbattendo, si contro uno specchio; e, non e sofferenza la spalancata, la finestra era una candela ardeva su un tavolo, so perché, lo sbattito delle tende, l'agitazione disperata di quella fiammella, che lo specchio pallido rifletteva, presero nel mio (And spirito un significato sinistro, in those great eyes was evening; the room was It [...] open and the curtains swelling and burned on aumentarono il mio terrore (366). saw her nameless sufferings pass I fluttering in the breeze, of the looking-glass. a table in front I like a wave window wide of shadows, the full and a candle do not know why, but the flapping of the curtains, the agitated flickering of the candle reflect- — ed in the pale mirror all and added unspeakably to While "unknown Giuliana's assumed my a sinister significance in my pain" caused by a "complicated internal is which [9] ("malattie complicate della matrice e dell'ovaia," 368) trouble" mind, terror. [7]) lead to the surgery scene discussed above, Tullio intentionally misunder- stands it as an attempted suicide caused by The second ^ The light candle enters, literally, on his infidelity. ^^ stage to delimit the discussion of the candle here creates a halo of magic, within which the very well, but the same..." motif all is reinforced. See the end "I know of the scene: "Ambedue oramai eravamo dominati da quel pensiero di morte, da quell'immagine di morte; ambedue eravamo entrati in una specie di esaltazione tragica, dimenticando l'equivoco che l'aveva generata, smarrendo realtà. Ed pianto; e un ella a tratto mescolammo potevano mutare le si mise a singhiozzare; e coscienza della la suo pianto chiamò il nostre lacrime, ahimè! che erano così calde e che nostro destino" (367-68) il il ("We were both, dominated by the thought of that death and the images it for the mio non moment, we both called up; entered into a certain state of tragic exaltation, heedless of the mistaken idea which had given and her alas! tears could not tence, the it birth, lost to all sense drew forth mine, alter till our destinies" one about tears, of reality. All [9]). It is interesting to corona mortuaria, su quella nessuna cosa Ciascun ... uomo Che è sedia, e il il sole, sul pavimento; e mio singhiozzo non mutava cosa possiamo mutare noi? Pesano forse ("There was the sun on the — Each man notice that the last sen- le nostre lacrime? - uno qualunque, a cui accade una cosa qualunque" (1075). tiles; and that funeral wreath sobs did not change a thing... What can effect? once, she began to sob, has also a reference in Giovanni Episcopo, at the end of the long scene of the vision quoted before: "Cera c'era quella at the drops mingled that were so hot, and yet, is just anyone, to whom on the we change? Do our just — 128 — chair; tears and my have any anything can happen" [134]). Scar Narrative Sore Narrative - berween Tullio and Giuliana regarding the pregnancy. At the beginning "Una candela ardeva underlines the fictitious setting of the scene: lo, aggiungendo evidenza a quell'aspetto nell'aria con un gran sé quel vago orrore che lasciano gesto disperato o minaccioso upon (510) ("A candle burned gli attori d'un dramma" the table, adding another touch to the scenic effect; for the wavering flame horror which lingers in the sul tavo- finzione scenica poiché la di fiammella mobile pareva agitare intorno a it seemed around to shed some grand air after ace from one of the actors in a drama" [175]). that vague it gesture of despair or At the end of the men- crisis the candle appears as an instrument of moral illumination and clarification ("io now primo riebbi negli occhi la luce," 521).^'' Yet, the light of the candle, reflected into a mirror, muddles the "truth" again vision another fictitious image that metonymically leads to the and brings into from the painting, "image of hallucination" to the image of the "unfaithful one" (that could be both the image of Giuliana being unfaithful or that of Tullio's unfaithfiil lover Teresa) to the "Other" (which could be the future illegiti- mate son, or Giuliana's - the level of the II but lover, beyond which divano con le it is might nostre figure la specchio dell'armario. rifletteva nello si Senza guardarci noi potevamo vedere perché be a variant of the "Oltre" as well revealed during the surgery). i ma non nostri volti vago dello specchio figura di Giuliana che prendeva a la sua immobilità un aspetto misterioso, Tinquietante ti femminili oscurati dal tempo, l'intensa vita una allucinazione. mi sembrò più quell'immagine mante, distinti E viva della persona reale. donna io vidi la l'infedele. Without looking Chiusi at poco a poco nella fascino di certi ritrat- fittizia degli esseri creati da accadde che a poco a poco quell'immagine discosta gli (The couch and our two tinctly, bene luce era scarsa e mobile. Io consideravo fissamente nel fondo Accadde che a poco in di voluttà, l'a- occhi. L'Altro comparve. were reflected figures each other, we could see because of the meagre and flickering vague depths of the mirror poco a donna delle carezze, la in the our light. at Giuliana's figure, I mirror opposite. faces, though indis- gazed fixedly into the which gradually assumed an aspect of mystery, the perturbing fascination of certain feminine portraits obscured by time, the intense fictitious life of figures born of an hallucination. And by '^"lo primo terminai di piangere; ardeva sul tavolo, e un la soffio" (521). ("I fiammella was the the table, the flame bending me more livwoman of my degrees this distant image seemed to ing than the real person, by degrees io si first primo to cease a quando weeping then as 129 in that image the riebbi negli occhi la luce moveva now and saw I if [. a . [...] La candela quando come inchinata da .] The candle burned upon under a breath" [188]). — Elena Lombardi caresses, the woman of passion, the Other suddenly appeared before 628) La after the and forth from a pie della culla ta della la me [...] Io (The cradle stood [...] compresi' in the dle 1 brought my my Feci una gran luce si fece 628-29). [...] I ali decked with white advanced a few paces and sat down trembling, downcast, feeble spirit that seemed so its former assurance. silence, that a great light of [...] due candele; por- of the cradle, between the two candles; to the foot of that cra- entirely to have lost tre Allora, dal silenzio, ( middle of the nursery between four lighted candles at the foot culla, tra le mia anima pavida umile debole, interamente orba- sua vista primitiva. dentro di illuminated. della camera, fra quattro candele accese qualche passo; andai a mettermi a pie della tai created is death of the child. Around the — although disingenuously— mezzo culla era nel The after the child's death. suddenly is eyes. are burning. Tullio's soul, blinded ("orbata della sua bed four candles vista primitiva," broke in upon [...] It me and was then, in that deep pierced to the very cen- I understood. [324-25]). soul Without further explanation feels my of candles to the other, an oscillating narrative movement around two points before and funeral closed mirror, but rather mirroring back Without the help of any set I [190]). of candles come into play Finally, three sets one faithless one. me as to what he understood, Tullio briefly the necessity of confessing his crime, but, rather than a statement, he devises a question: "Sapete voi chi ha ucciso quest'innocente?" (629) ("'Do you know who er, leads this killed this him back in his innocent babe?'" [325]). Federico, room, where another candle is Tullio's broth- burning.'^^ Through candle Tullio (and the reader, who, like the other characters under- stands the death of the child only from the perspective of Giuliana's sick room) lit: recollects Raimondo's agony, during which another candle had been "Avevano accesa una candela; e la reggeva una delle donne; e la fiammella gialla oscillava a pie della culla" (633) ("One of the women lighted a candle and held it over the cradle, where it shed a flickering yellow light" [329]). Eventually, the pressure and Tullio shouts (633) ("That candle — move of extinguishing denial: this ial is of recollection becomes too strong to his brother, "Quella candela! take away Leva quella candela!" that candle!" [329]). The last, theatrical and book with Raimondo's bur- the candle envelops the scene again in darkness consistent with the ending of the beside (and not by chance) Tullio's sister Costanza. "Vedendo una candela che ardeva su un d'averla lasciata accesa" (629) table, I started back. I ("when I tavolo, trasalii. Non mi ricordavo caught sight of a candle burning on a could not remember having lighted — 130 — it" [325]). Scar Narrative The comparison between - Sore Narrative cal for all scar and same with the horror of upon and at the same time obscures the fear (female castration). In the transition sore, narrative repetition and permanence it whereas the mobile and indecisive flame from the candle in L'Innocente flashes root reason of the of stripes the central event in the psychoanalyti- ghost text (Giovanni's fear of castration) and marks inevitability (Giro's death), and the scar and uniqueness of piercing sore narrative. In Episcopo, the fixity sunUght illuminates once and Giovanni the hght/ revelation devices in Episcopo and L'Innocente shows the different workings of the and reproduction substitute in the ghost text, in the narrative, and even between originality in style. Witness, for instance, the two techniques at play in the microcosms of quoted above with the a short passage. In Giovanni Episcopo, in the passage Giro reaches his father in the back third recurrence of the sunlight stripes. room of a drugstore where he working: is Io stavo nel retrobottega d'una drogheria, curvo su lo scrittoio a lavorar di conti, affannato di stanchezza e di caldo, divorato dalle seato dell'odore delle droghe. garzone, un giovane corpulento, dormiva mosche ronzavano sopra di lui mosche, nau- Notate, signore queste altre cose. [...] sdraiato su i Un sacchi, inerte; e le innumerevoli come sopra una carogna (1088). (I was back room of a grocer's, sitting at a desk working on the worn out from weariness and the heat, eaten up by flies, nau- in the accounts, seated by the smell of the spices. things. A delivery boy, sacks, inert; and the though around a flies onist Filippo Arborio . And .] fat, my dear sir, notice, these other was sleeping stretched out on the were buzzing above him, countless as flies carcass [146]). In L'Innocente, the same passage bookstore where Tullio [. young and — — in which the shop informed of the disease that is is is is upgraded to a killing his antag- enlarged and expanded through the repeated recurrence of the same image of the flies, which reproduced from every are point of view: Veramente di frescura, per un riscontro. Un portando un volume: l'autorità da addurre mosche implacabili discendevano con vano. Facevano tutte insieme il corridoio spirava Un commesso un filo dormiva in un globo terraqueo una sedia, col mento Montando, urtò col capo un nastro ch'era teso pel riposo delle mosche. nuvolo di mosche gli turbinò intorno con un ronzio fierissimo. Egli discese le La luce era mite. sul petto, all'ombra di pace, su [...] come un nella libreria stretta e lunga un ronzio commesso addormentato sotto cabili il lui. [...] in favore della Le mosche non irritante. — 131 — E quieta- Assalivano me, l'albino, globo terraqueo ronzavano, ronzavano senza posa (547-49). morte. si [...] E le mosche impla- Elena Lombardi (A thread of fresh air wafted through the long, narrow, passage-hke shop. The Hght was subdued. on knocked the his a chair, his chin On way he the quoted descended with volume a for his fatal verdict. [...] They kept up for A cloud of them instantly surrounded him with a cho- He rus of buzzing. to be on peacefully a terrestrial globe [...] head against a string fastened across a corner of the shop to rest on. flies A clerk slumbered shadow of his breast, in the The in his flies hand, the authority would not settle again. a continuous irritating buzz" [217-219]). Giovanni Episcopds dedication to Matilde Serao proffers an explanation for the different two really represent outcome of the two structures. For, if the two novels same renovation, the first one must defi- parts of the nitely be the pars destruens. The castration of the middle class character and the elimination of his offspring induce a scarring of the narrative structure, leading its words and images to a point of no return. In the dedication we find out that Giovanni Episcopo maximum was documented with tezza," allegedly a real character, is whose story precision ("con la maggior possibile esat- according to the dictates of realism) by D'Annunzio and his friends: La persona con intensa di Giovanni Episcopo era curiosità, conosciuta per Giacomo. Io, la già stata due anni innanzi. prima volta da me filosofo Il osservata e studiata Angelo Conti l'aveva nel gabinetto d'un medico, all'ospedale quel nobile filosofo e pittore simbolico il avevamo poi frequentato una mortuaria taverna San Marius de Maria della via Alessandrina per incontrarci col doloroso bevitore. Alcune circostanze bizzarre ave- vano favorito la 41 siringa e la D'Annunzio dying marmo nostro studio (Angelo Conti appunto aveva provveduto morfina pel povero Battista!).'*' "E Ciro mi faceva lume; Ma il raro materiale, rac- where Ciro and Giovanni nurse the referring here to the passage is Battista: il come un e in quella pelle tesa, lucente giallognolo, io iniettavo la morfina con una siringa arrugginita" (1079) ("and Ciro would hold the light; and then into that taut flesh which shone like yellowish marble [138]). To I injected some morphine with interlocutor (Conti, the medical student?) Wanzer's body ci fosse hypodermic at the morgue: "Voi . . is ..." (1034) ("Did you ... il cadavere? see... his corpse? something extraordinary about that closed..." [94]). The interlocutor is - Non And parve che occhi Don't you think there was those eyes? Ah, but the eyes were face, Ed ella vi turbamento improvviso ed una mano" (1040) ("Did you ever vi ma gli also said to have seen Ginevra: "L'avete vista? L'avete conosciuta? Le avete parlato? avrete provato quel syringe." anonymous said at the beginning to have seen vedeste . qualche cosa di straordinario in quel viso, negli occhi? - Ah, erano chiusi to her? a rusty further reinforce the pretense of realism of the story, the see her? ha parlato? Anche voi, certo, inesplicabile, se ella vi Did you know her? ha toccato Did you ever talk did she ever talk to you? Well, you too, I'm sure, experienced that sudden, inexplicable perturbation, if she touched you with her hand" [100]). — 132 — Scar Narrative - Sore Nariutive colto con la maggior possibile esattezza, era rimasto grezzo in alcune pagine di note (1025). (I had observed and studied with great curiosity the figure of Giovanni Episcopo two years before. The philosopher Angelo Conti had met him for the first time in a doctor's office, at San Giacomo hospital. That noble philosopher, the symbolist painter Marius de Maria and myself used to spend time deadly tavern on the via Alessandrina to meet with the at a sorrowful drinker. Some bizarre circumstances had fostered our study (Angelo Conti indeed provided the syringe and the morphine for the poor Battista!) But the with the utmost exactitude, had rare material, gathered remained but a rough draft in a few pages of notes [translation mine]). The confession of an alcoholic witnessed by three friends "under bizarre circumstances becomes, however, the " faithful record ^^«r^'itself of the narration, the "straightforward formula, the direct observation of humans formula ta MENTE, we and things ("Tutto who is metodo cose le trial. The sta in ques- DIRETTA- on the board. Angelo Conti and Mario De Maria, D'Annunzio and in life art, are in fact sophical and aesthetic terms of the "new" Daniele Glauro in // Fuoco - art. a medical student philosophical practice, was a collaborator of Tribuna il Bisogna studiare gli uomini e of a which sanctions senza transposizione alcuna" 1028) comes to be sentenced, once discover friends of - schietta: " Illustrata in the the promoters, in philo- Conti who - later depicted as dedicated himself to La Cronica Bizantina and La 1880s, in which, under the pen name "Doctor Mysticus," he supported the rejection of realism in favour of a kind of art steeped in decadent and symbolist inspiration."*- In the same years the painter Mario De Maria, known under the pseudonym of "Marius Pictor," Conti and D'Annunzio on symbolist figurative art. closely dialogued with In 1886 he contributed to the illustrated edition of the Isaotta Guttadauro, D'Annunzio's most markedly pre-Raphaelite poem. In this clearer: in new perspective, Giovanni Episcopo^ significance becomes order for D'Annunzio's quest for the "future novel" to express novelty completely and to shed light projects, the past work had to upon his its contemporary and future be reduced to impotence. Through Giovanni's castration and the suppression of his offspring, under the eyes of three representatives of the new reproduce, and justify the past its forms, nailed realism forever loses art, down in the rigor mortis its capacity to of the structure, production and open a way for the future. ^^ In Llnnocente For Conti and his influence on D'Annunzio's work, see Ricorda, Dalla parte di Ariele, and Zanetti, Estetismo •^Interestingly, in e modernità. Llnnocente w</t find a pale palinode of the abuse perpetrated on 133 Elena Lombardi —soon main located at the centre of the the female body triad — the reiterated castration of an absence-presence process of a starts which allows the structure and to live one fetishistic kind, to regenerate itself in all its parts: the character's representation, the narrative support, the figures, the images, and the language, not only through symmetrical resonances within the itself, but also through the refraction into and from other works. One last made point can be and often ure, inherent, in regarding the existence of the threat of fail- an apotropaic way, perhaps in This threat of "castration," which Freud Medusa,^'^ text literary all works. explained through the figure of here represented by the language and style of his previous is works. In L'Innocente, images and style from the earlier production are con- densed around the figure of the threatening phallic woman (the pregnant Giuliana). See, for instance, the following passage: "rimane incinta, igno- bilmente, con la facilità di dietro su l'erba in le siepi, femmine quelle tempo ignobly, with the facility of those hot the hedges, on the calde che di foia" (505) ("she women whom [my grass during the harvest" villani sforzano i was left pregnant, villains force behind Such a translation]). strong echo to the setting, the language and the situations of Terra Vergine does not recur even in L'Innocentés most openly rural scenes. There is, however, one significant exception: TuUio's criminal plot seems threatened by the presence, near the child's cradle, of a wet nurse, a woman from the mountain people. Only by deception and circumvention does Tullio manage to dismiss her from the cradle-side and to expose the infant out of the window, causing the this illness that will kill "femmina," whose enamel eyes Giovanni Episcopo in the figure set a him. Witness the description of Dantean Medusa and almost Tullio, la is dead. and then upon him. And cast it is He is [...] s'è accanita contro di quella delle sue creature man is La moglie, una Egli lui. a saint! [. . .] non ha [...] sper- Farai bene, The wife, a terhim of every- quite alone. His children have stripped him off Every form of human ingratitude has been poured not the unkindness of strangers, but of his blood, that he has had to endure smile-' [172]). Ironically, on mar- l'hanno spogliato e rin- ma a non dimenticare quel sorriso." ("That rible shrew, thing, umana perversità degli estranei figli I living sanctified in his tyrdom. See, for example, 508: "Quel vecchio è un santo specie di carnefice, è morta. Egli è rimasto solo. imentata man of Giovanni di Scordio, an old the family's estate, part of the Tolstoian plot negato. Tutta l'ingratitudine reference:'^^ [. Giovanni You would do .] . di Scordio well, Tullio, own not flesh and to forget that becomes the godfather of the ille- gitimate child. For Medusa as a literary threat see Freccerò, Inferno IX, 52: "vegna Medusa, e sì 1 "Medusa: the Letter and the farem di smalto." — 134 — Spirit." Scar Narrative Si - Sore Narrai chiamava Anna, era una femmina una grande razza di viragini alpestri. di ive Montegorgo Pausula; Aveva di rame, a cui mancasse la corona di torri. Portava una gonna un busto nero da cui pendevano due maniche lunghe dove introduceva le ma, oscuro; ma il foggia del suo paese: di scarlatto a mille pieghe diritte e simmetriche, a ricami d'oro, tensità la braccia. il Il suo capo si rado ella di levava su dalla camicia bianchissi- bianco degli occhi e candore del da esciva d'una Cibele talvolta l'aspetto il bianco dei denti vincevano d'in- rimanevano quasi lino. Gli occhi parevano di smalto, sempre immobili, senza sguardo, senza sogno, senza pensiero. La bocca una chiostra era larga, socchiusa, taciturna, illustrata da eguali. capelli così neri I terminavano bassa, che davano due in d'ariete. Ella stava quasi di tudini statuarie braccia della cupa à' idolo Io [...] trecce dietro gli orecchi attorte continuo vedevo biancheggiare su fissava fronte la come corna le poppante, in Raimondo atti- su le con quegli occhi inanimato (597-98, emphasis mine). member of a all il le fasce di femmina possente che mi (Her name was Anna. She was a had reggendo assisa, ed di denti fìtti riflessi di viola, partiti woman from Montegorgo Pausula, a splendid race of mountaineers. There were times the aspect of a Cybele of bronze, to whom when she only the turreted crown was wanting. She wore the costume of her part of the country; scarlet petticoat falling in a thousand straight symmetrical folds, and a a hung two long put her arms. Her head rose sombre and black bodice covered with gold embroidery, from which sleeves, into which she rarely grand out of her snow-white chemisette, but the whites of her eyes and her dazzling teeth far outshone the brilliancy of the linen. Her eyes, like polished enamel, remained nearly always motionless, staring without one gleam of fancy. The mouth was speculation, without iturn, lighted up by two rows of strong, even teeth. large, full, tac- The hair, so black showed gleams of purple, was parted over the low, broad forehead, and done in two plaits, which were twisted up behind each ear like the horns of a ram. She was almost always to be found sitting nursing the that it baby in a statuesque attitude [...] the arms of the sombre, imposing of an idol upon The from me would description of the statuary foster-mother ("Fiora si is composed of excerpts voltò, nel sorriso della bocca sanguigna Terra around, showing in the smile of her blood- red Vergine, mostrando le due 7 [Fiora turned mouth two rows of almond- white teeth (my translation)]); Nara the bust ("parve una bella femmi- na fiorente di salute pregno [...] bundle lying in fixed the inanimate eyes mighty and primitive women: Fiora lends the fde bianchissime di denti mandorlati," like see the white woman who [281]). Terra Vergines various mouth I e [...] il petto pregno di latte profondo," 16 [she looked her breast full like a le ondeggiava in woman blooming un anelare with health of milk undulated with her deep and pregnant breath- — 135 — Elena Lombardi ing (my aveva le Mena translation)]); braccia nude fino e il all'altre due seno chiuso a fatica nel corpetto 40 [Mena, between the two nero ricamato di seta gialla," arms naked up elbow and her breast barely to the mezzo the outfit ("Mena, in gomito al others, had her fitting in the black cor- (my translation)]); Gatta the white of non aveva che quelle due iridi gialle, tal- sage embroidered with yellow silk the eyes ("non era bella la Gatta: 43-44 [Gatta volta verdognole, immobili sul bianco largo dell'occhio," wasn't beautiful: she only ish, had those yellow cise reference guardando is found campagna, come un grande idolo la a woman-Medusa, which is in dagli occhi di smalat the countryside, moment for a has shown stalls D'Annunzian medusean form, threatens and its knowledge and number of // Frionfo della into detail, "enemy" spiritualit)'. traps for the it main is found in the "ethnographic" The episode of the religious mass hysteria during and 6) is recognizably similar in tone and narrative to the short story "Gli idolatri" (San Pantaleone). inated by direct observation - D'Annunzio took a description in many ways later, Zola's // Lourdes. Frionfo, orig- similar to the later one is "il voto" is also said to together with Del Nino's Studi However, the hysteric crowd, reminiscent horror of Ferra Vergine and of the Novelle, logical point was Barbara Leoni) and 1893, often with his friend, the have influenced the passage of its It various trips to Casalbordino painter-photographer Michetti, whose 1883 painting Abruzzesi and, character's can be observed that the same horror- the pilgrimage at Casalbordino (book IV, ch. 5 letter to Ippolita, In Le Vergini Morte, especially in the lengthy part dedicated to the pilgrimage to Casalbordino. recorded in a is for the author's political rhetoric. Without entering between 1887 (when figure threat to the vital Frionfo della Morte, the // sets a Medusa (102-09) that the value in connection with the past production of realism.'^'^ identify a very pecu- novels, developing Giorgio's Violante-Medusa genealogical project inserts the fetishistic process of the and L'Innocente in Fascist Virilities centre of the literary production. In delle Rocce, pre- muta, D'Annunzio's prose in the years between 1880 and 1894. inscribed within other in A rame di accompanied, therefore, by the medusean threat of moment Spackman translation)]). time in silence, gazing In conclusion, Giovanni Episcopo liar (my copper idol with enameled eyes" [my translation]). The large narrative, sometimes turning green- in Ecloga Fluviale. "Ella [Mila] passava le ore to" (61) ("She [Mila] spent her like irises, motionless in the wide whiteness of the eye is in not isolated only from a philo- of view. In the episode of Casalbordino the two main characters (Giorgio and Ippolita) are removed like mere stickers from the quasi-animal scene that unfolds before their eyes. Indeed, this episode within the text and testifies to is a truly closed scar the utter impossibility of the exchange between the two narratives. — 136 — Scar Narr.ative In the staged clash between the old come to into play: a scar and an event of castration - Sore Narr^ative and the new a sore type of narrative. which refers to reproducible, The two structures former, which refers in the psychoanalytical text, appears as a unique, closed structure that signals the scarring ter, literature, and liquidation of realism; the an event of fetishism in the psychoanalytical open structure attached lat- text, as a "new" decadent production. to the University of Bristol Works Cited Andreoli, Annamaria. "D'Annunzio e 92 D'Annunzio a in il romanzo europeo di fine secolo" pp. 85- Paolo Valesio. 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