ABSTRACT
Names play a multi-faceted and constitutive role in the complex cross-referential structure of the text in Elsa Morante's last novel Aracoeli. The novel is an exploration of the boundaries set by an unfathomable reality, which for Morante is always an equivalent to 'life', to the desire for knowledge and the search for meaning. The strength and power of Morante's novel lie precisely in the consistent recourse to the ambiguous and the abysmal. The last addition to the name, Maria, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mother, has its origin in Aracoeli's wish. This wish opens a new chain of stories which lead to Andalusia, to the domain and the narrative realm of the mother-lover and the girl Aracoeli. The novel ends with the description of the last encounter with the father and leads to a most 'queer' happy ending.
