The mute duchess

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The historical novel The Mute Duchess (Italian: La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa , translated by Sabine Kienlechner) by the Italian author Dacia Maraini was published in 1990. The book brings together all previous topics from Maraini's works as well as from her personal life: the unrequited love for the father, marriage and motherhood, the importance of writing and books.

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The action of the novel takes place in 18th century Sicily . It tells the story of the deaf and mute protagonist Marianna Ucrìa, who comes from a Sicilian noble family. Although Marianna belongs to a privileged family, she is oppressed because of her deaf dumbness. It is thanks to her father that she learns to write and read, which enables her to communicate with her surroundings. That was not a matter of course; other girls were denied access to education at the time. So it happens that Marianna has access to books and thus to education through her disability and is constantly expanding her horizons.

At the age of 13, Marianna Ucrìa was married to her uncle, who was more than 30 years her senior. She suffers tremendously from her husband's condescending and violent treatment. Unfortunately, there is no support that Marianna wants from the women in her family. From these reactions it can be concluded that the oppression of women at that time was a social fact that was also accepted as such. It is only after the death of her husband that the protagonist learns the real reason for her being deaf and dumb. As a six-year-old girl, she was raped by her uncle and future husband. In her marriage she is constantly re-traumatized by the abuse of her husband. This behavior shows that the family's honor always came before the girl's well-being. Nevertheless, Marianna has tremendous strength and is constantly facing new situations that pose a challenge both for her as a woman and especially for her as a deaf and mute.

Subject

The deaf mute and the role of women are central to Maraini's work.

Since Marianna can neither hear nor speak, small letters, which she writes lavishly with a pen, are her only form of communication. Because of her handicap, she has to rely on her sensory perception.

Marianna has five children and suffers three miscarriages. She leads a self-sacrificing life as a wife and mother, neglecting her own desires and needs. She only developed an awareness of her body at the age of 45, not least through an affair with a younger servant. The role of women is also thematized in the novel through the lives of Marianna's daughters, as Maraini shows their problems in marriage and motherhood.

Dacia Maraini has succeeded in writing a multilayered historical novel with a strong feminist tendency. The author cleverly links the threads between individual fate, traditional noble family and Sicilian culture.

Narrative technique

Marianna's deaf mute is also a stylistic challenge for the author. There is no way for the reader to identify with the protagonist through language. This means that the linguistic component takes a back seat and instead the detailed perceptions of Marianna Ucrìa come to the fore. The novel is written in the third person and is characterized by its many facets. Descriptions of customs, traditions and everyday actions give readers an insight into a Sicilian noble family in general and the life of a deaf-mute woman in particular. Through dialect expressions, the description of the peculiarities of the people and the description of the country, the reader gets an insight into the Sicily of the 18th century. Despite the strong historical reference, the story of Marianna Ucrìa can be assigned to the entertainment novel.

Awards

La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa was awarded the Campiello Prize in 1990 and was considered Book of the Year in Italy.

filming

In 1997 the book was filmed under the title "Marianna Ucría".

literature

Secondary literature

  • Amoia, Alba: 20th Century Italian Women Writers. The Feminine Experience. Illinois: Southern Illinois University 1996. ISBN 978-0-8093-2026-4
  • Grewe, Andrea: Introduction to Italian literary studies. Stuttgart: Verlag JB Metzler 2009. ISBN 978-3-476-02081-9
  • Heinzius, Barbara: Feminism or Pornography? On the representation of eroticism and sexuality in Dacia Maraini's work. St. Ingbert: Röhring Universitätsverlag 1995. ISBN 3-86110-056-8
  • Lazzaro-Weis, Carol: From Margins to Mainstream. Feminism and Fictional Modes in Italian Women's Writing. 1968-1990. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press 1993. ISBN 978-0-8122-1438-3
  • Marotti, Maria Ornella: La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa. A Feminist Revisiting of the Eighteenth Century. In: Dianescu-Blumenfeld, Rodica / Testaferri, Ada (eds.): The Pleasure of Writing. Critical Essays on Dacia Maraini. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2000, pp. 165-178. ISBN 978-1-55753-197-1
  • Petronio, Giuseppe: History of Italian Literature. Volume 3. From Verism to the Present. Tübingen, Basel: Francke Verlag 1993. ISBN 3-406-37470-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kleinert, Susanne: The female view of history. Elsa Morantes La Storia and Dacia Marainis La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa . In: Scharold, Irmgard (ed.): Scrittura femminile. Italian women authors in the 20th century between history, fiction and autobiography. Tübingen: Gunther Narr Verlag, 2002, pp. 87-114., P. 107.
  2. ^ Petronio, Giuseppe: History of Italian literature. Volume 3. From Verism to the Present. Tübingen, Basel: Francke Verlag 1993, p. 371.
  3. ↑ Incontrando Dacia Maraini  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.recensito.net  
  4. ↑ Dianescu-Blumenfeld, Rodica: Introduction. In: Diancescu-Blumenfeld, Rodica / Testaferri, Ada (eds.): The Pleasure of Writing. Critical Essays on Dacia Maraini. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press 2000, pp. 3-20, pp. 5.
  5. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Film Marianna Ucrìa