Almarina di Valeria Parrella fra forma letteraria e rapporti sociali

Stefania Lucamante

Primo

2023-01-01

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Abstract

The overarching argument for the consideration of Parrella's Almarina is that the novel furthers both a different perspective on the spatial dimension of Naples with the focus on the island of Nisida as the relations that might arise in its juvenile prison between two individuals who are not related by blood but entrust each other with their future existence. The emergence of a different kind of love to those conventionally presented illuminates the functioning of a relationship between a teacher and a student: in this case, it is apparent that not only the student, Almarina, benefits from the frequentation with her math teacher, but the latter, as well, benefits from the encounter with this gifted student. Cultural understandings of islands and their symbolic and psychological significance in recent literary tradition (Ortese, Ramondino, Morante) corroborate my interpretation of this novel.