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theses

This dissertation examines five contemporary Italian novels that focus on the traumatic and violent coming-of-age of the child protagonists and their dysfunctional relationships with inadequate adults/parents. Deploying a variety of interpretive tools drawn from literary, sociological, psychoanalytical, and philosophical approaches, this study investigates whether—and if so, then in what ways—these narratives may be read collectively as a literary symptom exposing a form of social uneasiness having to do with the concept of coming-of-age. More specifically, it explores the problematic relationship between children and grown-ups, which indirectly touches on the ideas of the future, of legacy, of ethics, indeed of our presence in the world. This hypothesis stems from the fact that these novels are the literary expression of a social context in which the pervasive presence of the media has blurred the line between authenticity and fiction (i.e. between trauma and its mere representation) eradicating the notion of childhood as such. As a result, the traumatic coming-of-age process, traditionally codified by initiation rites organized by elders, is nowadays fragmented into a myriad of apparently unimportant but potentially disturbing event—for instance, finding specific information online—that do not imply the presence of a grown-up and therefore jeopardize the role and identity of adults as mentors. Relevant factors and notions, such as the link between fatherhood and the Symbolic Order, the importance of the animal and the role of cattiveria in identity formation, the Double, the Other, fairy tales, and the abject, are analyzed and woven together into an essay that aims to provoke a few crucial questions about childhood, adulthood (fatherhood in particular) and coming of age in both novels and in contemporary Italian society.

ETD_7843

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Gabriella Bellorio

doi:10.7282/T3J968S2

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.