Decoding Intimate Suffering in Elsa Morante's La Storia

Elsa Morante's La Storia (1) takes a unique perspective on the Italian Fascist Regime and World War II by focusing on the suffering of individuals excluded by society - people whose voices perhaps never seemed interesting enough to attract the attention of large audiences. This analysis will be structured into three phases. First, it will discuss the way individuals become aware of their intimate suffering, considering the reiterative aspects of distress as well as its cultural and social context. Oram's article, Rapture and Revision: Visionary Imagery and Historical Reconstruction in Elsa illorante's La Storia (2) will constitute the main theoretical framework for this discussion. Secondly, the article will analyse the need of individuals to share their distress when they become aware of it, focusing on the means employed to convey their experiences, making use of the 'moral community' idea developed by Regan (3) and resumed by Morris (4). This is followed by a discussion of the ways in which individuals who are unable to effectively communicate their distress to others, are able to cope with this need. In this way we will approach the notion of alternative moral communities and communicative and comprehension codes. This article emphasises the social value of literature and aims to establish new literary connections between the suffering endured during the Italian fascist regime and World War H, with an examination of the ways in which individuals become aware of it.