Il corpo dell'altro. Nabokov, Roth, Siti: un'ossessione in forma di prosa

This article aims to investigate the formal organization of the theme of obsession in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (1955), Philip Roth's The Dying Animal (2001) and Walter Siti's Autopsia dell’ossessione (2010). A close comparison allowed us to grasp the different formalizations of the theme, starting from the relationship that each protagonist maintains with the body of the Other, i.e. the haunted body. The article, after an introduction, develops in four sections which correspond to four stages of the evolutionary process of obsession. Each of the novels opens by rewinding the tape: each of the protagonists looks back to the past using a different medium: writing, oral tale, photography. These strategies are understood as symptoms of the need to recognize the obsession as a will to ‘relive’ the body of the Other. Furthermore, it can be noted that each text appeals, directly or indirectly, to the reader; as if it invites him to sit down to ‘listen’ – literally – to a story.