Objects and Object Fetishism in Italian Short Stories: 1930-1959

The subject of this thesis is the literary representation of objects and of the phenomenon of object fetishism in Italian short stories written between 1930 and 1959. The examination of the recurrence and representation of these motifs offers both a viable route for an exploration of the impact on literature of the rise of material culture during this period of modern Italian history, and a deeper understanding of the expressive modalities adopted to depict that culture. The interpretative approach adopted in this study is both critical and theoretical. It hinges upon a selection of four different theoretical frameworks, which conceive of the ideas of objects and of the phenomenon of object fetishism in radically different ways. Each chapter is centred on one theoretical approach and uses it to undertake textual analyses of short stories by Dino Buzzati, Italo Calvino, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Tommaso Landolfi, Elsa Morante, Alberto Moravia, and Anna Maria Ortese. This thesis also shows how the application of the selected theoretical approaches can fit with the existing critical literature on the authors, whilst simultaneously providing more complex and refined considerations on the texts. Following these premises, the thesis is articulated in five chapters. The introduction lays out the historical, cultural, and literary background of the period. Chapter One applies psychoanalytical theories to texts by Morante, Ortese, and Calvino. Chapter Two is based on the application of Marxism-derived theoretical parameters to the analysis of texts by Gadda and Moravia. Chapter Three adopts a new materialist approach to the study of short stories by Landolfi and Buzzati. Chapter Four considers dust and rubbish theories and discusses them in reference to texts by Gadda and Calvino. These chapters are followed by a conclusion