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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
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