Anna Maria Ortese’s The Iguana revisits many themes that
have been present in the rest of the novels that have been analyzed in class.
Ortese emphasizes the absurd, which was mostly present in the works of
D’Annunzio and Pirandello. She also focuses on the distortion of time, and the
relationship between narrator, character, and reader; much like Artemisia. Additionally, there is the
ever-present theme of madness; who is mad, and what is madness?
One of the most puzzling aspects of
the novel is the concept of the narrator. The novel shifts the point of view
between second and third person often. In the addresses to the reader, the
narrator confesses not knowing certain parts of the story, or confusion. I
found this to be extremely interesting because it gives the reader the
impression that the narrator is a character. I suppose the narrator in any
novel is a character in some sense but in The
Iguana I feel that the presence of the narrator as a character is much more
prevalent. The dialogue between narrator and reader in The Iguana reminds me of the dialogue between author and character
in Artemisia.
Unlike Artemisia, Ortese’s narrator asks the reader to define what the
fantastic is, a very difficult question not only to answer, but also to
understand. My answer to the question is that the fantastic is what humans
believe to be the absurd. However, almost all of the novels analyzed in class
ironically give the opposite answer that our perception of reality is the
absurd. For example, the concept of the logical sequence of time, according to
Ortese is illogical and the wrong way to examine the work, a concept that I
believe many readers outside our class would find to be absurd. Lastly, Ortese
stresses the value of the fantastic. The novel proves that the fantastic can
say things that nonfiction cannot. Through the fantastic of The Iguana the reader is able to grasp a
new comprehension of the definition of reality, is warned against conformity,
and reminded of their ethical obligations as the reader.
I especially liked how you compared the Iguana to other texts we have studied in class already. One of the most definitive aspects of Ortese's fantasy is the narration. I think Ortese's fantasy is a rejection of Neorealism: she maintains that the more the reader tries to familiarize themselves with the real, the further they distance themselves from reality. This is certainly true of The Iguana: the novel itself traces Daddo's descent into madness. Ortese accomplishes this through the narration by keeping the narration consistent with the confusion of the plot. I like what you said about how the narrator makes herself seem like a character in the story by making herself susceptible to the confusion of the plot line. That is an interesting way of looking at it. The narration is certainly similar to that of Artemisia, but I think that can be taken a step further to say that the narration in both novels involves the reader, author, and character in a sort of triangle relationship. In The Iguana at least, real life situations are placed into a world where unexpected and inexplicable things happen, and I think looking at the effects of this on the narration would make for an interesting paper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point on the absurdity of the novel but I don't see the effect that it had on the value of the book. The absurdity found in this book is quite pointless and overdone, leading me to think the book was overall void of any real content. Using a non-chronological order of events is fine but she somewhat over stepped that by not using any real logic. To me I think that is a cheap way of getting around real writing, where the words are actually used to convey an idea, rather than assume that the lack of an idea can be a substitute for an idea.
ReplyDelete