What Goes Around Comes Back Around: Life Narratives and the Significance of the Past in Donna Leon's Death at La Fenice
This paper examines the life narratives of characters in Donna Leon's much-celebrated novel Death at La Fenice (1992). In the first of her Brunetti mystery series, Comissario Guido Brunetti investigates the death of the renowned conductor Helmut Wellauer, poisoned during a performance of La Tra...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2014 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat de Lleida (UdL) |
| Repositorio: | Repositori Obert UdL |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/465278 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2014.02.005 https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/465278 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Envelliment Detectius Leon, Donna Memòria Relats personals |
| Sumario: | This paper examines the life narratives of characters in Donna Leon's much-celebrated novel Death at La Fenice (1992). In the first of her Brunetti mystery series, Comissario Guido Brunetti investigates the death of the renowned conductor Helmut Wellauer, poisoned during a performance of La Traviata at La Fenice. As his investigation progresses, Brunetti discovers dark secrets in the past of the acclaimed Maestro, revealing his dishonesty and cruelty, but, most schockingly, his involvement in a horrendous case of child abuse and death by neglect. My analysis will address the role of memory and the significance of the past for the present, as the tragic experiences of the Santina sisters in the 1930s become intertwined with those of Wellauer's present wife Elizabeth and her daughter Alexandra. Using literary theory and cultural gerontology as methodological tools, this paper will explore Leon's portrait of the ageing process: Wellauer's lack of remorse for his past sins and his inability to cope with impending deafness will be contrasted with the painful account by Wellauer's former lover, the once famous soprano Clemenza Santina, whose narrative response to her traumatic experience renders the past more alive than the present. The significance of memory, as well as the crucial role of life arratives in the personal and cultural construction of identity, will be addressed to interrogate the ways in which our perception of ageing can be enriched by literary studies. |
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