Fire, Cinders and Rebirth. Some of Gradiva’s Afterlives

This paper is an analysis of Gradiva’s affinities with (pre-)Christian symbolism through the discussion of two texts representing Gradiva: Ghirlandaio’s Birth of Saint John the Baptist  and Wilhelm Jensen’s Gradiva. A Pompeian Fancy. This article analyses the symbolism of fire and cinders in Jensen’s texts as well as the relations of this symbolism with Saint John the Baptist  via the figure of Gradiva. Taking on theoretical concepts from Bachelard’s Psychoanalysis of Fire and Derrida’s Cinders, this paper suggests that Gradiva symbolizes the anima figure which, having been repressed through an Apollonian preference, reemerges in key moments in the art and literature of different epochs.

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