Abstract

CASTANO, María Belén. The search for domestic happiness in Natalia Ginzburg’s La città e la casa. Comunicación [online]. 2018, vol.27, n.1, pp.72-83. ISSN 1659-3820.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18845/rc.v27i1-18.3886.

Natalia Ginzburg’s (1916-1991) epistolary novel La città e la casa (1984) addresses- as do several of the author’s late works-the crisis of the traditional institution of the petit bourgeois family. Specifcally, we will address the various images of “home” present in the novel that relate to melancholy and alienation, revealing in turn a dichotomy between the home and work environment. This dichotomy allows us to explore the analyzing hypothesis of a division between the public and private spheres that the main characters belonging to the urban middle classes undergo, and this work’s social role as a historical testimony of its time. This study also intends to explore the sense of defeat that emerges from this novel, as reflected by characters invaded by ennui, whose diffculty to formulate their crisis crystallizes in different moves, through which they intend to escape from their alienation.

Keywords : Natalia Ginzburg; European literature; contemporary literature; national literature; alienation; middle class.

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