Il dono del corpo: la soggettività incarnata nel romanzo del novecento

The dissertation explores the raise of the role of the body in the XX century English novel. Its main contention is that the body becomes paramount within the frame of a non-substantialist reconsideration of subjectivity, due to the parallel wane of an essentialist view of the soul and the self. On the literary side, the dissertation examines the way in which those competing views of subjectivity - embodied and egologic - clash in the novels of David Herbert Lawrence, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett. Finally, each monographic chapter concentrates on the problems raised by the representation of the body in the literary medium, illustrating its role in the poetics of each writer.