Angel v. Monster: Serao’s Use of the Female Double

Abstract

Since Jean Paul Richter introduced the double motif to romantic literature, it has been used effectively by writers as varied as Goethe, Hoffmann, Poe, Dostoevsky, Stevenson, Maupassant and Borges to create drama and irony, and above all, to express the divisions which exist within man.¹ Critics too, particularly since the last war, have been fascinated by the literary use of the double. However, the major generic studies on the subject (Funari, 1986; Guérard, 1967; Keppler, 1972; Miller, 1985; Rank, 1979; Rogers, 1972; Rosenfield, 1972; Rutelli, 1985; Tymms, 1949) consider it almost exclusively in relation to male psychology. They take almost no interest in the presentation of the female double. Yet, women writers from the nineteenth century onwards have found this device valuable; and, in this chapter, I intend to analyse the use made of the double by one of these women writers — Matilde Serao — at the end of the nineteenth century.

I should like to thank Shirley Vinall, Zyg Barański, Giulio Lepschy and Franca Cerefice for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.