Corporeal Bonds

'Corporeal Bonds makes a significant contribution to the field of women's studies by positioning itself within a vibrant and longstanding debate on the importance of the mother in Italian feminist thought and in Italian women's writing. Using a combination of literary analysis, psychoanalytic and feminist maternal theory, and comments by the authors, Patrizia Sambuco offers a reading of five well-known and important novels that re-evaluates and re-vindicates the importance of the mother, and in particular, a communication with her that is corporeal. Highly readable, easy to follow, and remarkably jargon free, her theorizations of corporeality within the framework of a daughter-mother bond will offer scholars much food for thought.' -- Tommasina Gabriele, Department of Italian Studies, Wheaton College

In Corporeal Bonds, Patrizia Sambuco analyses novels by authors such as Elsa Morante, Francesca Sanvitale, Mariateresa Di Lascia, and Elena Ferrante, each of which is narrated from the daughter's point of view and depicts the daughter's bond with the mother.

The mother-daughter relationship is a popular theme in contemporary Italian writing but has never before been analysed in a comprehensive book-length study. In Corporeal Bonds, Patrizia Sambuco analyses novels by authors such as Elsa Morante, Francesca Sanvitale, Mariateresa Di Lascia, and Elena Ferrante, each of which is narrated from the daughter’s point of view and depicts the daughter’s bond with the mother.

Highlighting the recurrent images throughout these works, Sambuco traces these back to alternative forms of communication between mother and daughter, as well as to the female body. Sambuco also explores the attempts of the daughter-narrators to define a female self that is outside the constrictions of patriarchal society. Through these investigations, Corporeal Bonds identifies a strong connection between the ideas of post-Lacanian critical theorists, Italian feminist thinkers, and the stories within the novels.