The narrative of disability in Paolo Giordano’s novel ‘The Solitude of Prime Numbers’

Abstract

The article explores the motif of loneliness in Paolo Giordano’s novel ‘The Solitude of Prime Numbers’ in its connections with the motifs of trauma and disability. Viewed as an example of trauma novel genre, the novel offers two different models of the influence of traumatized experience upon an individual. In Mattia’s case, the trauma of his sister’s disappearance caused the character’s communicative and emotional disability taken by him for granted. Mattia’s internal space is closed for everybody’s attempts to enter it, to change his life. The closure of this character is emphasized by the imagery of empty space, darkness, and water objects. InAlice’s case, the trauma intensified the girl’s solitude but did not deaden her need for other persons (notably, for Mattia).Alice’s character is more dynamic than Mattia’s. So, the girl recovers from her childhood trauma, endures at least two more traumas, and gradually accepts new quality of her life which is lonely life far from Mattia. The problem of unspeakability in the novel is inextricably linked to the main characters’ traumatizing experiences. Silence here is the consequence of the traumas and, at the same time, the reason for them. In both storylines, the unspeakability of trauma makes impossible a different ending for the characters than to stay the prime numbers which can never approach each other.