Stefania Lucamante and Sharon Wood, eds. Under Arturo's Star. The Cultural Legacies of Elsa Morante.

Stefania Lucamante and Sharon Wood, eds. Under Arturo's Star. The Cultural Legacies of Elsa Morante. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2006.

Under Arturo's' Star is a collection of essays about Elsa Morante's cultural legacies by scholars from around the world. These include Morante experts such as Marco Bardini, Concetta D'Angeli, and Hanna Serkowska, who have written extensively about Morante in the recent past. The editors claim, however, that up until now there has been no full-length study in English dedicated to Morante, and hence express their intent to provide "the first comprehensive evaluation of Morante to appear outside Italy" (1). In the introduction, in addition to Morante's life and works, they briefly discuss the critical reception to Morante and introduce the essays included in this collection.

The volume opens with Elisa Gambaro's insightful piece on one of the lesser-studied texts by Morante, the autobiographical Diario 1938, published posthumously in 1989. Gambaro identifies traits of ecriture feminine in the oneiric nature and fragmented style of Diario, though she points out that it lacks the jouissance of femininity celebrated by the French feminists. Gambaro thus sustains that Diario reveals Morante's negativity regarding femininity and the female condition. In addition, Diario confirms Morante's fascination with Freud, anticipating dreams and fantasies that are present throughout Morante's novels.

Besides influencing the literary scene in Italy, Morante herself was influenced by both Italian and foreign authors. For instance, Morante shares affinities with Katherine Mansfield, whom she translated into Italian. Nicoletta Di Ciolla McGowan argues that Morante's short stories in Qualcuno bussa alia porta "share genesis and nature with Mansfield's cycles" (48). To prove her point, she compares Morante's "Un uomo senza carattere" to Mansfield's "The Man Without Temperament," showing successfully striking similarities between the two.

Sharon Wood examines models of narrative, such as the feuilleton and the epistolary novel, in Morante's first novel, Menzogna e sortilegio (1948), which also proves Morante's interest in Freud and Jung. Wood correctly calls Morante "an intensely modern writer," explaining that in fact "Morante's immersion in European culture makes her one of the most intellectual writers to have emerged from modern Italy" (96).

Marco Bardini, whose voluminous study entitled Elsa Morante. Italiana. Di professione, poeta was published in 1999, has contributed two essays to this volume. In the first one he discusses Morante's own criticai essays about aesthetics and arts, collected and posthumously published in Pro o contro la bomba atomica (1987). The second one is a close reading of the disastrous American translation of Menzogna e sortilegio, House of Liars (1951), which drastically reduced the original.

One of the most enjoyable commentaries is by Cristina Della Coletta, who examines the morphology of desire in Morante's second novel L'isola di Arturo (1957). Della Coletta's acute observations regarding the subject matter, her wide knowledge of literary criticism and her polished, refined writing style deserve much to be praised. Another excellent piece is by Hanna Serkowska, the Polish scholar, whose book "Uscire da una camera delle favole." I romanzi di Elsa Morante (2002) made her internationally acknowledged as a Morantista. In "The Maternal Boy," which echoes a chapter dedicated to Aracoeli (1982) in the above mentioned work, Serkowska briefly, but brilliantly, analyzes the concept of androgyny in Morante's last and least studied novel.

A few essays deal with Morante's influence on contemporary Italian writers, such as Concetta D'Angeli's "A Difficult Legacy." D'Angeli identifies several writers as Morante's heirs: Enrico Palandri, Patrizia Cavalli, Gianfranco Bettin, Mariateresa Di Lascia, Fabrizia Ramondino, Elena Ferrante, and Carmelo Samona. She distinguishes between writers "whose poetics have manifested an affinity with Morante's work, with her way of understanding the role of literature, and the ones whose work bears a closer relationship to her creative works in the concrete practice of writing" (194). (One of the heirs, Palandri, discusses Morante's ethical commitment in her narrative and essays in a short essay included in this volume.) D'Angeli's fascinating subject is so large that it could easily make material for a whole book.

In her lengthy essay, "Teatro di guerra: Of History and Fathers," Stefania Lucamante asserts the presence of Elsa Morante in Fabrizia Ramondino's works, such as Althenopis and Guerra cri infanzia e di Spagna. Lucamante convincingly suggests that Ramondino's lyrical writing style, her efficient use of language(s) and vernacular, as well as her family sagas, characters, and narrators recall those of Morante. In particular, Lucamante points out the striking similarity between the two writers' thoughts on historical discourse, which share the idea of war as a futile theater.

The last two essays examine the relationship between Morante and the legendary Pier Paolo Pasolini, which Walter Siti describes as "intense, reciprocal, fertile, and troubled." (268). (Siti's essay was originally published in Italian in "Vent'anni dopo La Storia. Omaggio a Elsa Morante" in 1994.) He considers aspects of Morante's presence in Pasolini's work and viceversa. Siti points out that some of Morante's characters, such as Davide Segre in La Storia and Manuele in Aracoeli, are portraits or caricatures of Pasolini. In turn, the irritated Pasolini attacked Morante in his reviews.

Filippo La Porta analyzes the concept of reality (and unreality) in Morante and Pasolini. He claims that the two writers share a positive concept of reality, which stands for "life (which obviously includes death) that is real, the concrete, lived present, happiness (always precarious, and carrying within it the possibility of unhappiness), love for what is (and not for that which could or should be), the full acceptance of the chance and unpredictable nature of life" (291).

Regrettably, none of the essays in this volume deal very profoundly with Morante's most popular novel, La Storia (1974), although some critics mention it briefly. La Storia, of course, reveals such cultural legacies as Morante's Jewish heritage and her connection to female literary tradition, visible for instance in the themes of otherness and madness. Nevertheless, on the whole Under Arturo's Star provides an enjoyable and insightful glimpse not only into Morante's time and her world, but into the contemporary Italian literary scene, which is why I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

KATJA LIIMATTA-BARONCINI

University of Iowa