Insularity, Filiation and Exile in Le Voyage à Rodrigues and L’isola di Arturo

Abstract

The protagonists of two novels, the first by the Italian writer Elsa Morante, L’isola di Arturo (1957) and the second by French Nobel prize winner J.M.G. Le Clézio, Le Voyage à Rodrigues (1986), suffer the consequences of a dual insularity: they live on a small island and, in addition, they are isolated from their fellow human beings by their idiosyncratic dreams. Each of them chooses to pursue their quest for a fulfilling identity in opposing directions which, in turn, lead to contrasting outcomes. For Arturo, real life begins outside the island. On the contrary, for the Narrator, real life is right here, on the island