The Intellectual As a Detective: from Leonardo Sciascia to Roberto Saviano
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THE INTELLECTUAL AS A DETECTIVE: FROM LEONARDO SCIASCIA TO ROBERTO SAVIANO Angelo Castagnino A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: Amy Chambless Roberto Dainotto Federico Luisetti Ennio Rao Attilio Scuderi ©2013 Angelo Castagnino ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT ANGELO CASTAGNINO: The Intellectual as a Detective: from Leonardo Sciascia to Roberto Saviano (Under the direction of Federico Luisetti) The character of the intellectual as a detective is a recurring presence in several novels of crime fiction published in Italy from the dopoguerra to today. This dissertation argues that, in order to foster a reflection on the role of the intellectual in Italian society, the narrative device of characterization has been employed in connection with a historical perspective on men of letters and their social function. This study examines the detective novels of such authors as Leonardo Sciascia, Giuseppe Pontiggia, Umberto Eco, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Carlo Lucarelli, Paolo Roversi and Roberto Saviano. By looking at the transformations in the figure of the intellectual as a detective through the decades, I aim to establish a correspondence between novel and reality based on the reasons why so many men of letters have felt the necessity to fictionally represent themselves as investigators. The many episodes in Italian history that in the past decades have never been completely clarified provide the real-life background for these novels. The intellectuals are often left alone in their quest for truth, in a fictional isolation of the characters that mirrors the condition of those writers who have tried to investigate the misteri d’Italia. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction THE INTELLECTUAL AS A DETECTIVE..............................................5 Chapter I. THE ISOLATION OF THE INTELLECTUAL IN THE WORKS OF LEONARDO SCIASCIA.......................................................................24 II. THE MAN OF LETTERS AS A METAPHOR: GIUSEPPE PONTIGGIA’S IL GIOCATORE INVISIBILE........................................76 III. THE INTELLECTUAL BETWEEN OBSCURANTISM AND RENOVATION: UMBERTO ECO’S IL NOME DELLA ROSA..............94 IV. INTELLECTUALS IN NOIR...............................................................116 V. FROM PASOLINI TO SAVIANO: REALITY, FICTION AND LITERATURE OF INQUIRY..............................................................136 VI. CONCLUSION..................................................................................153 WORKS CITED/CONSULTED....................................................................165 iv Introduction The Intellectual as a Detective My dissertation discusses the character of the intellectual as a detective in the Italian novel over the last fifty years. My thesis is that several novelists have used crime fiction in order to reflect on the social function of the intellectuals, their relationship with the institutions and their recurring condition of isolation. This study argues that the device of characterization has been employed in connection with a historical perspective on culture and its role in Italian society. Following a trend that is common to the contemporary scholarship on the topic that I present, throughout my inquiry I will often use as synonyms terms that fall into the more general category of crime fiction, such as giallo, noir or detective novel, aware of the distinctions that this terminology implies. My attention will be focused on the presence of a detective whose investigation is strongly based upon an intellectual approach, regardless of the specific sub-genre in which this presence is verified. The topic that I analyze is part of the discussion on the relationship between intellectuals and institutions in the Italian Novecento. Particularly after the posthumous publication of Antonio Gramsci’s Quaderni del carcere (Valentino Giarratana’s edition was published in 1975), the social implications of the intellectual activity have been considered a compelling aspect of the construction of a shared memory. Gramsci pointed out the necessity for Italy to develop a form of popular culture that would contribute to the formation of a national identity, and the Quaderni also offered a brief but meaningful reflection on the possibility for the detective novel to be part of this process. In reference to the attempt of men of culture to actively affect society, the position that Gramsci expressed is summarized with particular effectiveness in a 2010 article by Frank Rosengarten, “On Intellectuals, Engaged and Otherwise.” As he discusses the role that Gramsci proposed for the intellectuals, no longer corresponding to a separate portion of society, Rosengarten observes: Not only does he reject the notion that intellectuals are to be seen as a group apart from the common run of humanity in terms of how they conduct themselves in society and perform the tasks to which they are customarily dedicated; he also poses the question of intellectuals as a problem of determining the limits and the context in which they operate. He takes the position that the proper context in which to look at the question of intellectuals is the world of work, particularly as it involves the performance of tasks that, far from being in any way removed from the practical needs of society, make these needs the object of their activity. (158) In the years directly following the Second World War, the establishment of a position of centrality for the intellectual seemed possible: especially after the fifth Congress of the Pci (1946), the independence granted to the thinkers of the Italian Left provided the opportunity for a fruitful exchange of ideas based on a plurality of opinions. As Alberto Asor Rosa remarked in his Letteratura italiana, precisely in “Lo Stato democratico e i partiti politici,” during the dopoguerra writers lived in the legitimate conviction of prendere il potere: Nell’impegno della letteratura a favore della politica si scorge anche un modo per dare un ruolo sociale più significativo alla letteratura, un maggior potere allo scrittore. [...] Il ruolo protagonista degli intellettuali, 6 degli scrittori, degli artisti, dei cineasti, ne viene rapidamente e fortemente potenziato. La pluralità delle posizioni, che scaturiscono dal dibattito, ha anch’essa motivazioni sostanzialmente autonome, interne ai processi di sviluppo e formazione dei gruppi intellettuali: anche se gli attraversamenti con la politica sono, come è ovvio, frequenti e vivacissimi. (572-73) From the historical point of view, the characters that I study are the fictional representation of the end of the illusion that culture could actively affect our national history: for this reason, many of them are either defeated or experience the impossibility to reach justice, even when the investigation is successfully concluded. In this way, the intellectual as a detective becomes a tool that metaphorically represents the condition of men of culture in their pursuit of truth, and the difficulties that fictional characters face can be interpreted as a counterpart of those that real- life intellectuals have fought in their attempt to influence society. The inclusion of crime fiction into a position of centrality in the Italian literary discussion is a recent phenomenon, specifically connected with a series of factors: editorial success has been followed by a renewed interest of the critics who, after decades of negative attitude, now acknowledge detective novels as dignified objects of analysis, particularly because they often address matters of social relevance. The commercial success of such novels as Giancarlo De Cataldo’s Romanzo criminale (2002) and Andrea Camilleri’s series of Ispettore Montalbano have contributed to the creation of a trend, as confirmed by high sales for the entire sub-genre that I discuss. Innovative views and ideas, such as those presented in Wu Ming’s New 7 Italian Epic (2009), have fostered a renewed wave of respect from the critics who recognize the social impact that this movement is capable of.1 Despite this recent surge in popularity, it should be noticed that crime fiction has been present in Italy for more than a century, in some instances producing extremely acclaimed novels that have found their space in the national canon. The tradition of the Italian detective novel includes such authors as Carlo Emilio Gadda, Leonardo Sciascia and Umberto Eco, and has recently been inherited and transformed into a strictly contemporary form by Roberto Saviano, whose Gomorra (2007) has astonished readers in Italy and abroad. In addition to the relevance given to the themes presented in investigative novels, very often concerned with social denunciation, the literature of crime provides interesting reasons for an approach focused on the construction of the characters and the way they interact with each other. More specifically, the investigative novel from the dopoguerra to today has demonstrated a strong tendency to present characters of detectives constructed through intellectual features. The realm of the Italian crime fiction has been inhabited by several detectives introduced as intellectuals: policemen and private eyes with a remarkable ability to base their investigations on an intellectual approach are not rare in the 1 The recent publication of two collections of essays edited by Monica Jansen,