Narrative Vortices: Accumulation, Dynamic Descriptions, and Narrativity in Gadda's La cognizione del dolore

Abstract

This article analyses the role of dynamic descriptions in the narrative development of Carlo Emilio Gadda's La cognizione del dolore. The first part focuses on how accumulation, density, and indeterminacy operate within certain descriptive passages, sidelining narrative development. The second section shows how the accumulation of descriptive passages constitutes the narrative structure of the novel, thus challenging the idea that La cognizione is an anti-narrative work. The third part clarifies how accumulation, both within descriptions and of descriptions, creates an unconventional structure that comprises two 'narrative vortices'.