I "muri di lava": architetture e tecniche repressive ne L'arte della gioia

This article is focused on the repressive architectures and techniques adopted by Power in Goliarda Sapienza’s L’arte della gioia in order to reveal the social content of her poetics. The interpretation of the novel has been influenced by Michel Foucault’s and Erving Goffman’s theories about institutions and their forms of oppression. But I want to emphasize how Sapienza’s heroine Modesta has been represented: she is a fleeing subject who can even escape from subjugation by power, thanks to her anarchic soul, free to take a stand against every form of violence.