Published: 2020-12-17

Boxes and a Dog Dummy in The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: On Life in the Midst of Remains of Words and Things

Ireneusz Gielata Logo ORCID
Section: Explorations and Autopsies
https://doi.org/10.31261/Rana.2020.2.02

Abstract

This article is an attempt to interpret the final scene of The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (in which Concetta buries the remains of a decomposing stuffed dog) and to present an analysis of the motif of hope chests. Tracing Freudian anachronisms in the novel’s narration, the author proves that Concetta’s never-opened hope chests are a sign of her “mummified” memories of erotic unfulfillment. The decayed dowry kept in the chests is an image of “memory traces” (Freud) which harm the unmarried woman, turning her life into a “hell of memories.”

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Citation rules

Gielata, I. (2020) “Boxes and a Dog Dummy in <i>The Leopard</i>, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: On Life in the Midst of Remains of Words and Things”, Rana. Literatura - Doświadczenie - Tożsamość [Wound. Literature – Experience – Identity], (2), pp. 1–17. doi: 10.31261/Rana.2020.2.02.

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No. 2 (2020)
Published: 2021-05-18


eISSN: 2719-5767
Ikona DOI 10.31261/rana

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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