ABSTRACT
n 1963, as part of her collection of short stories Lo scialle andaluso [The Andalusian Shawl], Elsa Morante published a brief work of juvenile prose entitled 'II ladro dei lumi' ['The Thief of Lights']. At about the same time Morante was writing of the little hunchback in 'The Thief of Lights', Walter Benjamin dedicated one section of his childhood memoir to the same imaginary creature. In Morante's story and in Benjamin's memoir, whenever the child fears that something goes awry, is broken or lost, a little hunchback appears. The Thief of Lights', however, also hints at a spiritual depth that comes to the surface again in Morante's last novel, Aracoeli (1982). In 'The Thief of Lights' the narrator is not fully certain whether the girl in the story is really herself as a child. Like the girl in 'The Thief of Lights', Manuele in Aracoeli wonders if he bears in himself the imprint of a previous existence.
