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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_1087
dc.title	«Dormivo e sognavo che non ero al mondo». Shakespearean Resonances in Alda Merini’s Works
dc.contributor.author	Paravano Cristina
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	it
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/annali-di-ca-foscari-serie-occidentale/2017/1/dormivo-e-sognavo-che-non-ero-al-mondo/
dc.description.abstract	The paper investigates the Shakespearean resonances in Alda Merini’s works. Shakespeare was one of Merini’s favourite ‘fellow travellers’ in her literary journey, seemingly because he exploited the enormous dramatic potential of madness. His plays can be read as a projection and an amplification of the poet’s emotions, while providing them with names, bodies and voices. In her turn Merini perceived significant affinities with several Shakespearean characters, and tended to identify with some of them, superimposing her life onto theirs: during her stay in the mental hospital, peopled by horrible figures reminding her of Macbeth’s witches, Merini identified with Juliet, who embodied her love fancies and her romantic dreams. I will also discuss in detail the texts which refer to two famous couples, namely Othello and Desdemona, Hamlet and Ophelia, who are the most recurrent Shakespearean figures in Merini’s corpus. These are not only universal symbols but also mirror and give voice to the poet’s emotions. Indeed, as I will show, Merini read and appropriated their stories through the filter of her painful personal experience.
dc.relation.ispartof	Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 51 \| September 2017
dc.issued	2017-09-28
dc.dateAccepted	2017-03-29
dc.dateSubmitted	2017-03-07
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2499-1562
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.14277/2499-1562/AnnOc-51-17-5
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Asylum
dc.subject	Asylum
dc.subject	Hamlet
dc.subject	Hamlet
dc.subject	Madness
dc.subject	Madness
dc.subject	Merini
dc.subject	Merini
dc.subject	Poetry
dc.subject	Poetry

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

«Dormivo e sognavo che non ero al mondo»

Shakespearean Resonances in Alda Merini’s Works

Cristina Paravano Università degli Studi di Milano, Italia

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abstract

The paper investigates the Shakespearean resonances in Alda Merini’s works. Shakespeare was one of Merini’s favourite ‘fellow travellers’ in her literary journey, seemingly because he exploited the enormous dramatic potential of madness. His plays can be read as a projection and an amplification of the poet’s emotions, while providing them with names, bodies and voices. In her turn Merini perceived significant affinities with several Shakespearean characters, and tended to identify with some of them, superimposing her life onto theirs: during her stay in the mental hospital, peopled by horrible figures reminding her of Macbeth’s witches, Merini identified with Juliet, who embodied her love fancies and her romantic dreams. I will also discuss in detail the texts which refer to two famous couples, namely Othello and Desdemona, Hamlet and Ophelia, who are the most recurrent Shakespearean figures in Merini’s corpus. These are not only universal symbols but also mirror and give voice to the poet’s emotions. Indeed, as I will show, Merini read and appropriated their stories through the filter of her painful personal experience.

Published

Sept. 28, 2017

Accepted

March 29, 2017

Submitted

March 7, 2017

Language

Keywords: Asylum • Merini • Hamlet • Madness • Poetry

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-1562/AnnOc-51-17-5

Copyright: © 2017 Cristina Paravano. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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