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L’infante, la donna, la bestia: un’analisi ecocritica degli incontri non umani in Federigo Tozzi, Dino Buzzati, Anna Maria Ortese
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Date
2023
Authors
Ceravolo, Marco
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Publisher
University College Cork
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Abstract
The authorial connections between Federigo Tozzi, Dino Buzzati and Anna Maria Ortese are notable and varied. Linked by a fervent animalistic and, in the case of the latter two, also environmentalist spirit, the non-human plays a central role in the works of the authors, who represent natural entities, animals, or fantastic creatures as narrative archetypes of universal pain. This thesis investigates the encounters between the human and the nonhuman in the works of Tozzi, Buzzati, and Ortese with the aim of answering the questions “what does otherness represent for the authors?”, and “how is this 'other' portrayed in their novels, short stories, and journalistic writings?”. To tackle these issues, my analysis considers three thematic areas, namely the representation of the child, the woman, and the beast, categories united by a perception of inferiority, and thus of marginalization, in a purely patriarchal social context. In the three chapters, one per individual author, the investigation of the three principal thematic areas makes use of a range of critical theories such as Ecocriticism (Garrard, Buell, Wolfe, Iovino), Animal Studies (Derrida, Cimatti, Regan, Singer), Ecofeminism (Warren, Adams, Plumwood, Ruether) and Children's Studies (Freud, Joosen, Khan, Kellert).
In the works of the three authors, the animal is portrayed as abused, castrated, and killed, and this confirms how, due to a lack of logos, the nonhuman can be easily subjugated in human society. On other occasions, the animal, as a model of otherness, is acknowledged by the authors as a fragile entity, and thus in need of protection or defense. However, animality also serves the function of representing human figures through animalistic characteristics, or portraying characters who are placed on the same social scale as beasts enslaved to man: namely, women and children.
Therefore, after having traced the narrative archetypes and symbolic connections between the child, the woman, and the animal in selected works of Tozzi, Buzzati and Ortese, the last part of the respective chapters addresses the salient themes of the three authors' attitude towards animals from an ethical-moral perspective. In the case of Tozzi, I analyze texts that draw upon his strong influence by nonhuman agents. For Ortese and Buzzati, I consider a selection of the authors’ militant journalistic production which advocates for the protection of those who have no voice to denounce their own oppression, existential imperatives of an ethical-moral order which constitute the critical building blocks of their animalist spirit. The conclusions highlight the connections between the authors through the three thematic cores examined (child, woman, and beast), and trace the positioning of the nonhuman in the authorial imaginary of Tozzi, Buzzati and Ortese, authors who are only seemingly dissimilar, but who are linked, instead, by a profound, indissoluble interest in the other.
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Keywords
Italian literature , Ecocriticism , Ecofeminism , Animal Studies , Anna Maria Ortese , Dino Buzzati , Federigo Tozzi
Citation
Ceravolo, M. 2023. L’infante, la donna, la bestia: un’analisi ecocritica degli incontri non umani in Federigo Tozzi, Dino Buzzati, Anna Maria Ortese. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.