“The island could no longer be seen”: an analysis of the bakhtinian chronotope in Elsa Morante’s Arturo’s Island

Abstract

Starting from the concept of the chronotope of encounter, developed by Mikhail Bakhtin (1895 - 1975), this article aims to shed light on the encounters and misencounters of the main character in Elsa Morante's novel Arturo's Island, in order to demonstrate how they are determinant for the development and resolution of its plot. The russian theorist emphasizes the importance of the association between the formation of man and the historical formation of the world, especially between the categories of space and time, from which, according to our hypothesis, the structuring moments of the novel's plot would occur. Published in 1957, Morante's work narrates in the first person the memories of the protagonist's childhood and adolescence lived on the island of Procida, bay of Naples. Arturo's journey of formation is intrinsically linked to encounters and misencounters with the people around him, shaping up as decisive moments in the narrative. Therefore, we will seek to illustrate the components of the chronotope of encounter in Elsa Morante's novel in order to verify its relevance in the articulation of the plot.