Coming to terms with a traumatic past: Elsa Morante, Marguerite Duras, and feminine (hi)-stories

This dissertation investigates how feminine historical fictions facilitate the process of coming to terms with the traumatic events of World War II, the Holocaust, and the bombing of Hiroshima. It also explores a theoretical background which endorses the claim that feminine fiction can play an important role in the post-modern search for alternative epistemological models related to understanding of the past. The proposed vision of knowledge-historical or other--calls for an integration of rationality and emotion as well as a refusal of clear-cut dichotomies. The process of "coming to terms" recognizes the traumatic effects and possible aftermath of historical events. The narratives abandon the position of mastery, employ repetitive and circular writing, and accept loss and pain connected to the trauma. They provide, however, a certain hope for the future by creating a new community of listeners through the act of telling stories.; Close readings of fiction and non-fiction by Elsa Morante and Marguerite Duras provide test-cases for my hypothesis by showing how both writers--in different but related ways--employ feminine modes of narration and representation. Each author's approach to traumatic historical events creates meaningful and innovative forms to connect the present to the past, and to the future.; The conclusion indicates further areas of inquiry that can employ and problematize the proposed theoretical framework. It also suggests ways in which feminine historiography can benefit from a dialogue with feminine (hi)-stories.