The Dance of the Àrgia

Costantino Nivola, Ernesto De Martino, and the Crisis of Presence

Abstract

The essay investigates Costantino Nivola’s engagement with Ernesto de Martino’s concept of the “crisis of presence,” which informs Nivola’s exploration of displacement and rootedness, reflecting his attempts to reconcile his Sardinian identity with the alienation of exile. Drawing from Sardinian folklore, especially the ritual of the Àrgia described by de Martino and Clara Gallini, Nivola channels the mythological and therapeutic dimensions of this exorcism rite into his work. De Martino’s thought provides a critical foundation for understanding how Nivola reinterprets the maiden, the mother, and the widow as symbols of the feminine principle, embodying both the redemptive and destabilizing forces of tradition.