Publication

Against unreality: A literary ethics of attention to suffering with Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, and Elsa Morante

Dianetti, Michela
Thumbnail Image
Files
Thumbnail Image
2024dianettiphd.pdf
Adobe PDF, 3.68 MB
Identifiers
https://hdl.handle.net/10379/18586
https://doi.org/10.13025/29380
Repository DOI
Publication Date
2025-02-19
Keywords
attention, mystical realism, suffering, attentive witness, Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, Elsa Morante, Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Italian
Type
doctoral thesis
Downloads
Show all metadata
Citation
Abstract
This thesis positions literature as a privileged space for attending to suffering, examining the moral value of attention as theorised by Simone Weil and expanded by Iris Murdoch. I explore the relationship between attention and literature, establishing what I define as a ‘literary ethics of attention’. From this, I develop a framework I term ‘mystical realism’, which proposes that literature can bear ‘attentive’ witness to suffering. A case study of Elsa Morante’s novel La Storia, viewed through the lens of Murdochian philosophy of literature, serves to illustrate this idea, as the text is rooted in Weil’s concept of attention to le malheur. Through this analysis, the thesis suggests that La Storia is an example of ‘mystical’ attention to the darkest and most invisible aspects of reality, and thus a literary endeavour to restore the integrity of the real.
Funder
Irish Research Council
Publisher
University of Galway
Publisher DOI
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
cbn
Collections
University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)