FANTASIE EROTICHE NELL’OPERA AGOSTINO DI ALBERTO MORAVIA
EROTIC IMAGINATIONS IN AGOSTINO OF ALBERTO MORAVIA

Summary/Abstract: Erotic literature has never been the subject of a serious study, often dismissed for its immorality and considered as a subgenre. From Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence (1928) to the Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (1968) all these works were banned and censored for obscenity.Alberto Moravia is considered as one of the most important novelists of the twentieth century, in his works he endeavored the issues of modern sexuality. His erotic works, with predominant sensuality and voyeurism, are the most surprising and daring.We will look at the short novel by Alberto Moravia, Agostino, written by the author in 1941 but only published in 1944, previously hampered by the fascist censorship. If Agostino can be considered as a Bildungsroman which recounts the passage from childhood to adolescence, through the discovery of sexuality as a rite of initiation, which idea of sex the writer wanted to bind?We propose, therefore, to investigate the reasons behind the choice of treating a subject considered taboo 'in a Mediterranean society with habits and traditional customs. We will also try to study the contribution of Moravian work in the realization of some sort of sexual liberation in the society of the time.

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