Un paradosso apparente: Menzogna e Sortilegio, il primo romanzo di Elsa Morante

The work of Elsa Morante (1912-85) falls in two parts and the dividing line can be placed shortly before the middle of the 1960s. Almost all scholars of her work have denied the first two novels any substantial relationship with the historical and local context. The present contribution attempts to prove that in her own paradoxical way the author adheres strictly to some of the most fundamental sources of spiritual inspiration, active in her country in the years immediately following the Second World War in her first published novel, Menzogna e sortilegio (1948)