SOURCE: "Moravia's Luca Mansi and His Dreams of Transcendence," in Italica, Vol. LIII, No. 1, Spring, 1976, pp. 8-28.

In the following essay, Cerreta applies Jungian psychoanalysis to the interpretation of Luca's two dreams in La Disubbidienza.

After E. Sanguineti's exhaustive and illuminating commentary on Moravia's La Disubbidienza [in Alberto Moravia] it would seem that additional remarks based on a psychoanalytical approach would not contribute to any significant expansion of our understanding of this novel. This would be particularly true if we were to restrict ourselves to Freudian psychology which is the foundation on which Sanguineti's work rests. However, in spite of its soundness, Sanguineti's analysis, by glossing over Luca Mansi's two dreams, unexplainably leaves unanswered some very important questions, especially for a follower of Freud. I hasten to add that in this deficiency the Italian critic does not stand alone. Yet, in all fairness, it should be stated that...