This article focuses on Elsa Morante’s last novel, Aracoeli (1982), as an interesting case study of representation of the mind as embodied. The argument begins by considering the ambiguous status of Manuele as narrator and suggests that his inability to distinguish between true and apocryphal memories should be regarded as a cognitive issue rather than a rhetorical one. The next stage of the argument explores the consequences of adopting a cognitive approach, thus foregrounding the embodied mind as one of the main foci of the narrative, both thematically and stylistically. Assuming a cognitive interpretive key, the central part of the article illustrates Morante’s complex portrayal of the dependence of the mind on the body and in particular on sensory perception, providing also a closer examination of the number of ways in which Morante articulates the body-mind nexus. For descriptive and heuristic purposes, these instances have been gathered into three main clusters: Embodied nature of emotions or feelings; Specificities of embodiment; and Embodied memory. Finally, I shall offer some suggestions as to how a cognitive reading of Aracoeli corroborates a non-nihilistic interpretation of the novel as expression of existential or literary defeat.
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