Traumatic Realism and the Poetics of Trauma: Narrative Structures in Elsa morante's History: A Novel, in De Rogatis T e Wehling-Giorgi K, Traumatic Realism and the Poetics of Trauma in Elsa Morante's Works

Aim of de Rogatis's parte of thi paper - entitled Traumatic Realism and the Poetics of Trauma: Narrative Structures in Elsa morante's History: A Novel - is to demonstrate that the literal reality construed by Morante in History and Aracoeli is an archetypical space of trauma able to connect different eras with one another. These chronological connections include our current time, affected by Covid-19 and by the severe economic and social impact engendered by it. The «traumatic realism» (Foster) expressed by History is defined as an important precursor and ancestor of the contemporary Global Novel and of its capacity to express - through different modes and techniques - a transnational and experimental form of realism as well as an extreme sense of emergency that can no longer be postponed. In order to highlight and to effectively promote Morante’s connection with this important area of contemporary global writing, the essay is written in English. Drawing on Trauma Studies, de Rogatis's part of the essay also identifies and articulates four techniques of traumatic realism within History: a) A twentieth-century poetics of pathos and a female counter-narrative of History; b) Compassion, abjection, and the dramaturgy of trauma; c) The «scandal», the narrative spirals, and the zones of trauma; d) The scars of trauma: silence, other languages, and animals.