Student Name: Niamh O’Brien Word Count: 2,000-2,500

Student Number: 17377333

Module Title: 20th Century Italian Women Writers
Module Co-Ordinator: Ursula Fanning

4. Silences and omissions are dealt with very differently by Ginzburg, Morante, and
Loy. Make comparisons between at least two authors and describe the use of
silences and omissions in at least two texts.

Introduction:
Introduce title of essay and what I will discuss followed by brief intro of each author.

Point 1: Silence and omissions in Natalia Ginzburg’s lessico Famigliare

-Written from memory (child’s viewpoint) (memory unreliable) and reflection
-Doesn’t write much about herself (omits self from book almost).
-Theme of noncommunication between family. (Parents, siblings etc.)
-Recreating historical events from the mind of a 10-year-old, parental lies, comforting catchphrases for serious events to
#minimise effects.
-Private story from Ginzburg more comic and trivial but with its own meaning.
-Omissions purposely part of the text.
-Powerful unspoken presence (Silence)
-Ginzburg story telling different to mothers
-Silence and suppression in female writers
-Words shaping the past
-Horror and solitude by silence
-Mother and father lead characters that us protection and comic relief as the omission and silence in the novel
-No love nor resentment, omission of feeling from Ginzburg
-Understanding between writer and reader
-Omission and silence can enhance psychological analysis by reader
-Gestures, speech and action without personal comment or elaborate digression

Point 2: Silence and omissions in Rosetta loy’s La Parola Ebreo

-Authentic, gaze/observation key.
-Internalization of the world through own unconsciousness (6-year-old)
-Omissions and silences show how child is shaped by the world-Written from memory (child’s viewpoint)
-The idea of fragmented, chaotic and random than totality
-Silence of child brought back to life
-General reflections that concern life in its entirety
-Subject relativism
-Loy discovers herself through historical truth as it appears
-Mere facts without comment making the meaning behind it more intense
Loy’s collection of second-hand documents
-Silence in pretending not to know and remaining indifferent
-The silence of history is through feeling of guilt
-Omission of description of major events and figures (Detachment or overwhelming)
-use of pronouns instead of saying the word
-Past and present self
-God was silent then

Point 3: compare the two novels’

Ginzburg Silence on being Jewish and wwII vs Loy on being Bourgeoise catholic in wwII
The silence of horrific events vs silence of word ‘Jew’
Silence through suppression vs silence through guilt
Family dynamic vs silence and omission
Class in society vs silence and omission
Childhood memory vs silence and omission

1
Student Name: Niamh O’Brien
Student Number: 17377333
Module Title: 20th Century Italian Women Writers
Module Co-Ordinator: Ursula Fanning

Conclusion:
Highlight what I have discussed (similar to intro) and end with a brief critical overview.

Bibliography
Woolf, Judith. “Silent Witness: Memory and Omission in Natalia Ginzburg’s ‘Family
Sayings.’” The Cambridge Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 3, Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 243–
62, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42967733.

Almond, I., 2002. "The Appalling Richness of Reticence: Silence in the Work of Natalia
Ginzburg." Italian Quarterly 39: 151/2, (2002) 27-34, [online] pp.27-34. Available at:
<https://www.academia.edu/412866/_The_Appalling_Richness_of_Reticence_Silence_in_th
e_Work_of_Natalia_Ginzburg_?auto=download>

Wood, Sharon. Italian Women Writing. Athlone Press, London, 1995, pp. 161-168

Cinelli, Gianluca. “Silenzio e Verità Ne La Parola Ebreo Di Rosetta Loy.” MLN, vol. 123, no.
1, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 8–21, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30133951.