Abstract
While rereading the classical Arturo’s Island novel, set on Procida, I focus on the way in which Elsa Morante challenges the system of literary genres (confusing and mixing Bildung with anti-Bildung) and in which she tackles the gender binarity of her characters (first replacing the female character by a male protagonist, and then supplanting the male characters in favour of androgynous figures). The writer refuses the established system of genres (and genders) to expose it to hybridizations and ambiguity.