Anna Maria Ortese's Claustrophyliac Worlds in Translation

So far, few studies have been carried out on the translation and reception of Ortese's work, while the two fields offer many interesting insights that further enhance the specificity of the work. In this light, the present contribution proposes a comparison between two recent adaptations, i.e. between the short film Un paio di occhiali (A pair of glasses) by Carlo Damasco (2001) and the feature film L'iguana (The Iguana) by Catherine McGilvray (2004), drawn from the short story/romance of the same name, in order to verify to which extent these adaptations, which combines both the audiovisual and the verbal mode, are faithful to the source texts. Both adaptations have in common their circular structure, but, while the first one gives an original twist to Ortese's visionary world that defies reality, the second embeds the story in a contemporary setting that does not seem to render Ortese's fantastic approach to reality.