Cartoline dal paradiso : drogue, invasion et autodestruction chez Elsa Morante

Drugs and addiction are a neglected but central theme in Elsa Morante's later work, especially after her political and existential turn in the 1960s when she experimented with sedatives and psychedelics. This article examines the drug-leitmotif in the second part of "Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini" (1968), titled "La commedia chimica." There, the physical sensations of LSD and mescaline are articulated through cultural references to Rimbaud and Beat literature. The poems reveal difficult mind/body relationships in Morante's work and provide access to the ambivalences structuring her last two novels, "La storia" and "Aracoeli."

Study at a glance

Abstract

The importance of drugs as a theme in the second half of Elsa Morante’s work is rarely emphasized. Beginning with the author’s existential and political turn in the 1960s, a decade that saw her experiment with a series of sedatives and psychedelics, drugs and addiction become omnipresent in the lives of some of the key characters in her novels and short stories. This article focuses on the drug-leitmotif’s appearance in the second part of Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini (1968). In this section, aptly named La commedia chimica, the physical sensations of an intimate experience of LSD and mescaline—the letters of both are hidden within the texts—are articulated through cultural encoding: through Rimbaldian memory, containing Beat reminiscences. The poems presented here allow us to reflect on the difficult mind/body relationships in Morante’s work, offering access to the themes and insoluble ambivalences structuring her last two novels, La storia and Aracoeli.