«The eternal shiver of mystery». The Fantastic in Grazia Deledda's short stories
Abstract
The short stories of Grazia Deledda present evident traces of the fantastic. But it is a particular kind of fantastic, one which wavers between the strange and the marvelous, between the rêverie (a situation in which the ego, forgetful of its contingent history, lets its spirit wander and thus enjoys a freedom similar to that of the dream) and tales of superstition and popular legends. A fantastic where we meet magicians with superhuman powers, propitiatory litanies, holy oil or priestly vestments used for magical rites. Traces of enchantment and mystery can actually be found in all Deledda’s works. However, this study aims at investigating only one element of Deledda’s fantastic: the ghostly figures. Deledda seems to find in the short story the most suitable formula, one which combines the magical world with the realistic one of Barbagia, where she lived.
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