Rebuilding Ethical Desire in the Era of Narcissistic Jouissance: The Reinvention of Fatherhood in Antonio Scurati’s Il padre infedele

Abstract

This article argues that in Il padre infedele, Antonio Scurati deals with the loss of social responsibility that characterises the current era of hyperhedonism, forging a post-metaphysical form of parenthood that, similarly to Massimo Recalcati’s ‘father-witness’, transforms narcissistic jouissance into ethical desire without resurrecting the Law of the Father. Furthermore, it contends that Scurati’s ‘father-witness’ is an embodiment of the ‘writer-witness’ as storyteller who is a recurring presence both in the author’s works and in other works of contemporary literature, and can be viewed as a strategy to combat ethical inertia without reinstating an ‘organic’ discourse of artistic commitment, which may hinder individual engagement.