Gradiva

Infobox Book
name = Gradiva
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Wilhelm Jensen
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Germany
language = German
series =
genre = Romance novel
publisher = Fischer
release_date = 1903
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = NA
oclc = 7305023
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Gradiva" (Latin, "The one who walks") is a neo-Attic Roman bas-relief in the manner of Greek works of the fourth century BCE, of a robed woman who lifts the hems of her skirts to stride forward. The relief is in the Vatican Museums. [Museo Chiaramonti, Section VII/2.] This sculpture was the basis for the 1903 novel of the same name by German writer Wilhelm Jensen, which in turn became the basis for Sigmund Freud's famous 1907 study "Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva" ("Der Wahn und die Träume in W. Jensens "Gradiva").

Plot introduction

The story is about an archaeologist named Norbert Hanhold who holds a fascination for a woman depicted in a relief that he sees in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Hanhold later dreams that he has been transported back in time to meet the girl, whose unusual gait captivates him as he imagines her walking on the stepping stones that cross the roads in Pompeii while the hot ashes subsume the city in 79 AD.

Allusions/references from other works

Sigmund Freud famously analysed Hanhold's dreams ("Der Wahn und die Träume in W. Jensens "Gradiva", 1907, or in translation: "Delusion and Dream in W. Jensen's 'Gradiva'"), a unique example of his psychoanalysing a fictional character. Freud interpreted Hanhold's fetish as being a substitution for unresolved feelings for his childhood playmate, "Zoe Bertgang".

Freud owned a copy of this relief, which he joyfully beheld in the Vatican Museums in 1907; it can be found on the wall of his study (the room where he died) in 20 Maresfield Gardens, London—now the Freud Museum. The relief was taken from the original conserved in the Vatican Museum, rather than Naples, where Jensen fictionally places it, in order to be transported to ancient Pompeii.

Salvador Dalí used the name Gradiva as a nickname for his wife, Gala Dalí. He used the figure of Gradiva in a number of his paintings, including "Gradiva encuentra las ruinas de Antropomorphos (Gradiva finds the ruins of Antropomorphos)". The figure Gradiva was used in other Surrealist paintings as well. "Gradiva (Metamorphosis of Gradiva)", 1939, by Andre Masson explores the sexual iconography of the character. Gradiva 'the woman who walks through walls' is the muse of Surrealism. [Nadeau, Maurice, "A History of Surrealism", (1965).]

Gradhiva (written on purpose with an "h") is an anthropological and museological journal, founded in 1986 by the surrealist poet and social scientist Michel Leiris and by the anthropologist Jean Jamin, currently published by the Musée du quai Branly in Paris.

Awards and nominations

The "Gradiva Awards" ^{[http://www.naap.org/awards.html]} , given by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, USA, are named after Freud's essay.

References

* Wilhelm Jensen. "Gradiva" (1903)
* Sigmund Freud. "Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva" (1907)

Notes

External links

* Freud Museum, Vienna [ [http://www.freud-museum.at Sigmund Freud Museum Wien / Vienna - Sigmund Freud Privatstiftung ] ]
* Freud Museum, London [ [http://www.freud.org.uk Freud Museum London ] ]
* The relief at the Freud Museum, London. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEED6133DF933A2575BC0A960948260&sec=travel&spon=&pagewanted=print Visiting Freud'S Home In London - New York Times ] ]