“Message in a bottle”: tra realismo magico e memoria, una metafora di appropriazione dell’universo femminile in un romanzo iracheno

This article tries to explore the meaning of an image (i.e. the bottle) as a feminine space. The bottle occupies a meaningful “place” (topos) in the world literature: among many narratives, also the Iraqi writer Salīm Maṭar gives his personal interpretation of this pervasive image in his famous novel Imra’at al-Qārūrah (The Woman of the Flask, 1990). Maṭar creates a sort of ḥūriyyah who, in her eternal life within the bottle, offers a témoignage of the history of her land. Imra’at al-Qārūrah moves between reality and “magic realism” becoming a metaphor to describe a particular aspect of the Iraqi history and culture.