‘Totetaco’: the Mother–Child Dyad and the Pre-Conceptual Self in Elsa Morante's La Storia and Aracoeli

Wehling-Giorgi, Katrin

doi:10.1093/fmls/cqs072

‘Totetaco’: the Mother–Child Dyad and the Pre-Conceptual Self in Elsa Morante's La Storia and Aracoeli

Wehling-Giorgi, Katrin

Authors

Professor Katrin Wehling-Giorgi katrin.wehling-giorgi@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

The article provides a close reading of the mother–son relationship in Elsa Morante's La Storia (1974) and Aracoeli (1982). While previous critics have stressed the antithetical nature of the two Morantian portrayals of motherhood and the filial relationship, I argue that the author's account of early childhood as a pre-conceptual realm which resists totalizing notions of identity and language suggests a previously under-explored continuity between the two novels. A Kristevan interpretative framework proves useful for an investigation into the role of the maternal in the early formation of the self and the adoption of semiotic, pre-verbal forms of expression. While Ida's and Aracoeli's eventual descent into madness and Useppe's premature death constitute failed attempts at constituting a coherent notion of selfhood outside the bounds of the mother–child relationship, I conclude that Manuele's ultimate ‘abjection’ of the mother signals an unprecedented step in Morante's discourse on subjectivity.

Citation

Wehling-Giorgi, K. (2013). ‘Totetaco’: the Mother–Child Dyad and the Pre-Conceptual Self in Elsa Morante's La Storia and Aracoeli. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 49(2), 192-200. https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqs072

Journal Article Type	Article
Online Publication Date	Jan 27, 2013
Publication Date	Apr 1, 2013
Deposit Date	Sep 4, 2014
Publicly Available Date	Oct 25, 2016
Journal	Forum for Modern Language Studies
Print ISSN	0015-8518
Electronic ISSN	1471-6860
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	49
Issue	2
Pages	192-200
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqs072

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This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Forum for Modern Language Studies following peer review. The version of record [Wehling-Giorgi, Katrin (2013). ‘Totetaco’ the Mother–Child Dyad and the Pre-Conceptual Self in Elsa Morante's La Storia and Aracoeli. Forum for Modern Languages Studies 49(2): 192-200 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqs072.