Leonardo Sciascia was undoubtedly a prominent figure of Italian public life due to his scathing criticism of the Mafia and of occult power. Unfortunately, most critics have relegated him to the role of mere detractor of Italy's corrupt public and private mores. We cannot deny that he did indeed fulfill this role as well; however the overall literary value of his works by far exceeds that of a statement of charges against organized crime. His literary production can be in fact interpreted as a safe haven for truth against the establishment's drive to obliterate it. This thesis aims at reasserting the true literary value of Sciascia's works. There is in fact a gateway between history and literature and Sciascia crossed it repeatedly by using the investigative essay as a weapon against historiography and the "official" version of facts. It is by this means that Sciascia attained literary craftsmanship without ever departing from his sworn moral commitment to uphold the struggle against the establishment. In this thesis we have analyzed the various literary tools of which Sciascia has made use: the prolonged metaphor, metaphoric speech and the creation of a hybrid genre, the investigative essay. Our analysis led us to some findings which we have expounded in the conclusion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.34700 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Ben Ahmed, Samir. |
| Contributors | Gilardino, Sergio Maria (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | Italian |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Italian.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001610466, proquestno: NQ44362, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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