Acquainted with Grief | Acquainted with Grief

At a glance:

Author: Carlo Emilio Gadda
First Published: 1963
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Antistory
Time of Work: 1925-1933
Setting: The mythical city of Pastrufazio in Maradagàl, South America
Genres: Long fiction, Antistory
Subjects: Mothers, Parents and children, Doctors, 1920’s, 1930’s, Bereavement or grief, South America or South Americans, Isolation, Neuroses
Locales: South America

Characters Discussed

Gonzalo Pirobutirro de Eltino (gohn- ZAH-loh pee-roh-bew-TEE-rroh day ehl- TEE-noh), a middle-aged engineer and writer. Gonzalo carries a grudge against everything and everyone, including his mother, father, and brother (the latter two are dead). He often abandons himself to bouts of anger and makes all kinds of violent accusations: He accuses the peons of thievery, the middle class of being society’s disgrace, the rich of having taken advantage of the war to make money, and the military of being irresponsible warmongers. Often, Gonzalo not only insults and yells at his mother but also batters her. The last heir of the Pirobutirro family, Gonzalo basically is a misanthrope.

Elisabetta Francois Pirobutirro, Gonzalo’s mother. Señora Elisabetta lives in a world of illusion. She believes that the family is still wealthy, and she is more concerned with the appearance of their social status than with the emotional problems of her son Gonzalo. She is obsessed with the memory of her son who died in the war.

Doctor Higueroa (hee-gway-ROH- ah), the Pirobutirro family’s physician. Doctor Higueroa, through his thoughts, symbolizes society’s point of view in its perception of Gonzalo’s personality and behavior, especially the way that Gonzalo treats his mother, Señora Elisabetta.

Cavaliere Trabatta (trah-BAHT- tah), Gonzalo’s neighbor. Cavaliere Trabatta is the victim of a burglary after refusing the protection of the Nistitúo, a vigilante group. He hires mercenaries to be his guards instead, and it is they who find Señora Elisabetta after she is attacked.

Bibliography

Adams, Robert Martin. “Carlo Emilio Gadda,” in After Joyce: Studies in Fiction After Ulysses, 1977.

Biasin, Gian-Paolo. “The Pen, the Mother,” in Literary Diseases: Theme and Metaphor in the Italian Novel, 1975.

Dombroski, Robert S. “Overcoming Oedipus: Self and Society in La cognizione del dolore,” in Modern Language Notes. XCIX (January, 1984), pp. 125-143.

Lucente, Gregory L. “System, Time, Writing, and Reading in Gadda’s La cognizione del dolore: The Impossibility of Saying ‘I,’” in Beautiful Fables: Self-consciousness in Italian Narrative from Manzoni to Calvino, 1986.

Pacifici, Sergio. “Carlo Emilio Gadda: The Experimental Novel,” in The Modern Italian Novel: From Pea to Moravia, 1979.