The Garden of Becomings: A wonderful space and a sinister experience at Marosa di Giorgio

Abstract

I investigate the significance of the forest as a privileged space where Marosa di Giorgio’s stories elapse. She establishes the forest as the ideal space for the development of the sinister experiences that dominate her texts. Both the tales and the novel that I study confirm the Freudian definition of the uncanny as that which must have remained hidden but has manifested or, equally disturbing and no less plausible, that which being familiar is presented as strange and alien. To expose such a condition, di Giorgio turns to associations with other arts, especially 15th-century Flemish painting, transforming the forest of her stories into a Garden of Delights in Bosch’s style. She also calls for the presence of other artists and, despite her remarkable originality, inscribes herself in a series of Uruguayan authors which produces imaginary spaces for her narrative.