For a Narratological Approach to Space in Post-Apocalypctic Narrative: Ammaniti, Arpaia, Zanotti
Abstract
This article proposes a set of conceptual tools and strategic questions that can guide the narratological analysis of narrative space in post-apocalyptic narratives. While these concepts can be employed in other texts too, this particular genre has been chosen due to space’s privileged thematic role: the catastrophe that causes the end of the world as we know it either entails a radical transformation of the environment or brings about social crises that force individuals to rethink their relationship with their surroundings. The article explores the consequences of the thematic relevance of space for the formal strategies used to render it. Drawing on M.-L. Ryan’s model of narrative space, a comparative analysis of Bambini bonsai (Zanotti), Anna (Ammaniti), and Qualcosa, là fuori (Arpaia) serves to illuminate similarities and differences in how space is represented, and suggests how these formal features may prompt specific reading effects.
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