The subversion of madness: (un)writing confinement. La terra santa and L’altra verità by Alda Merini

Abstract

In this paper we propose to address two literary works by the Italian writer Alda Merini, La terra santa and L’altra verità. Diario di una diversa, from a feminist perspective. We aim to research how these texts contribute to expose certain forms of captivity to which women are subjected because of their gender. We will delve into her writing with the intention of finding in it a possible emancipatory potential that reveals said oppression and is able to show the hidden face of certain subaltern existences. For our analysis, we will use the theoretical postulates of Franca Basaglia in Mujer, locura y sociedad and those of Marcela Lagarde y de los Ríos in Los cautiverios de las mujeres. Madresposas, monjas, putas, presas y locas.