Year: 1991
Type: article
Abstract: anagnorises which occur in the novels are presented in logical and rhetorical modes that may be described as aporetic.The narrative modes of The Empty Canvas^and The Lie^are aporetic in several different senses of the Greek term aporia.The novels are aporetic narratives in a logical and philosophical sense.In the Metaphysics, Aristotle inspected and attempted to resolve some of the logical problems and puzzles (aporiai) of Zeno of Elea.While Moravia's narrative aporetic of freedom and nonfreedom resembles Aristotle's dialectic of resolution, it is closer to the aporetic phenomenological description that the German philosopher Nico- lai Hartmann (1882-1950) gives of the antinomies of human free will and determinism.Hartmann argues in Moral Freedom, the third volume of the translation of his Ethik (1926), that metaphysical problems such as that of free will and determinism are insoluble.He attempts to find a way through what he labels the aporiae or dilemmas of human freedom by unraveling the strands of this logical conundrum, inspecting the contradictory positions, and finally resolving the contradictions partially by positing a middle way.Though there is no evidence that Moravia read or borrowed from Hartmann, nonetheless his narrative strategy is similar.His protagonists recognize their dilemmas of freedom and nonfreedom, and they seek a way out or a way through the horns of dilemma.The Greek terms aporia and aporos mean, in addition to the definitions given above (problem, puzzle or paradox), difficulty of passage and paths or ways beset by barriers and impediments.Moravia's protago- nists search desperately for a way or ways out of their dilemmas, but find no convenient existential exits.Suicide surfaces as a way out, a choice and an
Source: Quaderni d italianistica
Author: William Slaymaker
Language: English
Subfield: General Arts and Humanities
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W838832118