Infancia y cuento de hadas en Il bacio della Medusa, de Melania Mazzucco

Il bacio della Medusa, opera prima de la escritora italiana Melania Mazzucco (Roma, 1966), narra el amor erótico entre dos mujeres a comienzos del siglo XX. En este artículo estudiaremos las representaciones de la infancia (un tema recurrente en distintas obras de la autora), a partir del análisis de la intertextualidad con el cuento de hadas. Los procedimientos de reescritura, citación e inversión transmiten una visión desencantada de la niñez

Screen into the pages. Reviewing the sleeping beauty, gene-sis and metamorphosis of a fairy tale

La metafora della “Bella Addormentata”, archetipo del femminile che si risveglia solo con “il bacio del vero amore”, inteso come bisogno imprescindibile della figura maschile per la realizzazione del proprio sé, va mutando attraverso il rapido evolversi delle trasformazioni sociali e culturali. I film Maleficent e La belle endormie ribadiscono il valore del femminile all’interno delle narrazioni simboliche.The metaphor of “Sleeping Beauty”, the archetypal female that only wakes up with “love’s true kiss”, understood as essential of the male figure needed for the realization of one’s self, it is changing through the rapidly changing social and cultural transforma-tions. The movie Maleficent and La belle endormie reaffirm the value of the feminine within the symbolic narratives

Per cacciar la malinconia delle femine: immaginazione e malattia d’amore nel Decameron di Boccaccio

The conceptions of lovesickness and of its remedies that emerge in the Decameron result from a medical tradition that in previous centuries was assimilated by the Latin culture. The case of the Decameron is particularly interesting because this work was composed during the Black Death epidemic, between 1348 and 1354. Boccaccio’s Decameron seems to be situated in a tension between two diseases: the black plague, from which the brigata tries to escape, and lovesickness. It is quite significant that Boccaccio dedicated his work to women who love and need the comfort of literature, thereby addressing a new ideal of noble women, not based on their wealth, but on their intelligence and sensitivity. Women are often victims of their melancholy, because they have no opportunity to distract themselves, being confined to the private space of their rooms. Boccaccio describes women as being subject to passion and illness, so that the lovesickness cases described in the Decameron strongly allude to the discrimination of women and to the oppression they had to endure. An explicative example that testifies to the preeminent role that the medical culture played is Decameron X, 7, in which Lisa, the daughter of an apothecary, strangely cannot be healed by pharmacological remedies that her father knows, and not a single physician can help to heal her lovesickness. The case of Lisa can be interpreted as an exemplum: a woman afflicted by the same sickness as Lisa could understand how to behave by means of reading of this novella. Moreover, this paper will demonstrate that a useful outline of Lisa’s symptomatology can be found in Dino del Garbo’s commentary on Guido Cavalcanti’s poem Donna me prega

“La prima cosa bella”: uno sguardo alle cure palliative

The encounter of bioethics, law and cinema offers the opportunity to turn a new regard toward biomedical issues. Among these issues, palliative care is a subject that appears through recent publications of laws on this field. The theme of the end of life is challenged between screen and reality. As a point of reference for this brief discussion, the Italian film La prima cosa bella gives a delicate and sensitive look at human relationships involving assistance to terminally ill patients and healthcare structure directed to their support

Per cacciar la malinconia delle femine: immaginazione e malattia d’amore nel Decameron di Boccaccio

The conceptions of lovesickness and of its remedies that emerge in the Decameron result from a medical tradition that in previous centuries was assimilated by the Latin culture. The case of the Decameron is particularly interesting because this work was composed during the Black Death epidemic, between 1348 and 1354. Boccaccio’s Decameron seems to be situated in a tension between two diseases: the black plague, from which the brigata tries to escape, and lovesickness. It is quite significant that Boccaccio dedicated his work to women who love and need the comfort of literature, thereby addressing a new ideal of noble women, not based on their wealth, but on their intelligence and sensitivity. Women are often victims of their melancholy, because they have no opportunity to distract themselves, being confined to the private space of their rooms. Boccaccio describes women as being subject to passion and illness, so that the lovesickness cases described in the Decameron strongly allude to the discrimination of women and to the oppression they had to endure. An explicative example that testifies to the preeminent role that the medical culture played is Decameron X, 7, in which Lisa, the daughter of an apothecary, strangely cannot be healed by pharmacological remedies that her father knows, and not a single physician can help to heal her lovesickness. The case of Lisa can be interpreted as an exemplum: a woman afflicted by the same sickness as Lisa could understand how to behave by means of reading of this novella. Moreover, this paper will demonstrate that a useful outline of Lisa’s symptomatology can be found in Dino del Garbo’s commentary on Guido Cavalcanti’s poem Donna me prega