RIVISTA DI STUDI ITALIANI | |
Anno XXVI , n° 1, Giugno 2008 ( Contributi ) | pag. 106-126 |
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HONOR, “QUALUNQUISMO”, AND ESSENTIALISM IN SCIASCIA’S “L’ANTIMONIO” |
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JOSEPH FRANCESE | |
Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan |
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Abstract: The fatalism of the protagonist of one of Leonardo Sciascia’s first published fictions, “L’antimonio”, reflects Sciascia’s own essentializing belief in an atemporal Sicilian way of life. When read in the light of an early Sciascian declaration of poetics, “La sesta giornata”, “L’antimonio” casts into high relief postures that will remain constant throughout the rest of Sciascia’s career and inform his fictions and non-fictions. The protagonist’s preoccupation with maintaining his honor allows him to avoid the public humiliation associated with challenging and attempting to transform an overwhelming power structure, in this specific case Fascism. At the same time, preservation of personal honor safeguards the protagonist from shame, an intra-psychic phenomenon. His preoccupation with honor leads him to avoid all forms of collective action and to exhibit the profound disaffection and distrust of all politics and politicians, and interclassismo characteristic of the Uomo Qualunque, a movement that was popular especially in the countryside of Southern Italy in the years following post-War II period, the period in which the narrating I commits his story to paper. In addition, the Author notes the similarities between the narrating I’s posture and Sciascia’s own youthful politics. Key-words: Leonardo Sciascia, Honor, Mediterranean Studies, “Qualunquismo”, Sicilian essentialism, “L’antimonio”, “tenace concetto”, masculinity, anti-political individualism. |
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