Italians, Germans, and a Mandolin! Wider Reading 7: Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a 1994 novel by Louis de Bernieres. It is set in the middle of World War Two, during the Italian occupation of the Greek island of Cephallonia. The book narrates the story of Pelagia, a young woman living on the island. She is engaged to a young man named Mandras, but she is in love with Captain Antonio Corelli, an Italian officer posted to Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces.

Many themes of an identity struggle can be identified here. One of which is the struggle for identity of Carlo, one of Corelli's soldiers. As a homosexual, he is forced to hide his true nature to escape "shame and scorn." He pours out his lament into several chapters of his "last will and testament," titled "L'Omosessuale." Pelagia also experiences a struggle for gender identity, for although she is a talented doctor she is unable to practice it professionally because she is a woman.

Captain Corelli's struggle is of a national nature, being one of few Italians on a Greek island. Not forgetting, of course, the struggle for national identity of the whole island, being first occupied by Italy and then Germany, both of which will have left their mark both culturally and physically.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Identity Quotations