Sovversive, distruttive, demoniache, matricide. Le fanciulle fatali di Isabella Santacroce

<p>The paper aims to show the extent to which the female protagonists of Isabella Santacroce’s novels are the realizations of the symbolic image of the fille fatale, present in the culture, literature and art of the twentieth century. The characters created by Isabella Santacroce seem to be eternally at the age of transition between the childhood and adulthood. Their beauty is irregular, disturbing, ambiguous and sometimes demonic. As well as the nymphs, last larval stage, they are fascinating, attractive and dangerous at the same time, as the harmless destructiveness is their main trait. Between the others versions of the twentieth-century fille fatale, the Santacroce’s female protagonists are definitely more libertine, what seems to be Tondelli’s heritage.