Abstract
Reviewed by: Michael Sguerri, Virginia Tech, USA
In this well-written, innovative volume, Angelo Castagnino provides a new perspective on the Italian crime novel, as well as on the role of the intellectual in Italian society. The analysis presented in this book is twofold: it examines the characterization of people of culture as investigators and traces the social commitment of authors such as Sciascia, Eco, Pasolini, and Saviano, to name a few, from the 1960s to today. The detectives found in these authors’ works encourage a reflection on how narrative characterization has been used in connection with a historical perspective on the socio-political situation in the Italy of the dopoguerra.
In the first chapter, Castagnino begins his examination with the crime novels of Leonardo Sciascia, whose body of work represents the ideal incarnation of the correlation between the transformation of the fictional intellectual/detective and the author’s interpretation of how a person of knowledge, such as himself, should influence reality. The detective/intellectual characters created by Sciascia constitute the core of this volume because they exemplify all of the elements that Castagnino uses to analyze the role of the intellectual in other novels examined in his study. One key characteristic identified by the author regarding the intellectual/detective in crime novels is the character’s incompatibility with a community that does not recognize their function as intellectuals. Given that Sciascia published detective novels over a period of 30 years, it is possible, Castagnino argues, to trace a progressive transformation of the detective/intellectual, to which corresponds the Sicilian author’s changing interpretation of what the role of the intellectual in society should be.
Chapter 2 analyzes the transformation of the character of the professor into a detective in Giuseppe Pontiggia’s 1978 novel Il giocatore invisibile and in the literary output of more recent authors, such as Santo Piazzese and Domenico Seminerio. Castagnino examines how the intellectual, primarily in Pontiggia’s work, allows for a metaphorical interpretation of how power is managed by powerful people, and how intellectuals react when their knowledge and authority are challenged. In examining Il giocatore invisibile, Castagnino discusses how the novel revolves around the notion concerning the role of human expression and language, and how these elements become key factors in the metaphorical assassination of the professor, or the annihilation of his certainties. As the author of this volume expounds, the characters of Il giocatore invisibile use philology as a means to counter the problems they face, thus attempting to transport these obstacles into the same field of which they are specialists; by doing so, the characters can reclaim their intellectual authority and consider their role to be relevant.
The third part of Castagnino’s volume addresses the relationship between intellectuals and the masses in Umberto Eco’s seminal work Il nome della rosa (1980). In this chapter, the author draws a parallel between the typical characteristics of crime novels and the role of literacy. Just as in Sciascia’s novels, the intellectual in Il nome della rosa finds himself in a hostile environment, which in this case is a symbolic representation of the literary institution which is isolated from the rest of the world. Thanks to his erudition, the intellectual/detective character in Eco’s novel becomes a key player in the discussion concerning the relation between people of culture and those around them, thus reflecting Eco’s interest in the topic of the role of intellectuals in society.
Chapters 4 and 5, instead, explore the role of journalists as detectives/intellectuals in Tabucchi’s Sostiene Pereira (1994) and La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro (1997), as well as in Dacia Maraini’s 1994 novel Voci. By transforming journalists into detectives, the authors of these novels foster a reflection on how people of culture can shape the common memory of a nation; Castagnino links this aspect to Tabucchi’s output as an essayist and socio-political commentator. In a similar fashion to the characters present in Tabucchi’s novels, the journalist/intellectual in Maraini’s Voci is also transformed into a detective. In Maraini’s novel, the protagonist is used to denounce violence against women in traditionally patriarchal societies.
In the sixth chapter, the author takes into consideration a variety of noir novels, in which there is a construction of an anti-hero character whose cultural knowledge does not come from the study of literature and the arts, but stems instead from American mass culture.
The last chapter of this volume argues for the possibility of a comparison between the literary output of Pier Paolo Pasolini during his final years and Roberto Saviano’s Gomorra (2006) and Zero Zero (2013). The Neapolitan author’s denunciation of the world of the Camorra can be compared to Pasolini’s inquiry into the corruption of people in power in his posthumous Petrolio (1992). Castagnino highlights how in both Pasolini and Saviano’s works the character of the investigator/intellectual takes on new responsibilities by directly observing and denouncing illegal activities; however, what makes the detective/intellectual’s inquiry particularly unique in these works is how the denunciation of illegal practices is no longer expressed in a completely fictional story, but is now provided through a hybrid text containing elements of crime fiction as well as references to real-life characters and events.
In the conclusion of this volume, Castagnino examines the reasons why so many novelists in post-war Italy have felt the need to fictionalize themselves as detectives in their novels, and how their literary works often involve the major historical events that have characterized post-war Italy. The representation of the intellectual as a detective, Castagnino argues, reflects people of culture’s need to denounce injustice for the sake of a common good. Additionally, the conclusion also insists on how the representation of the intellectual in crime novels needs to be analyzed in regards to its ‘performative’ function, or the idea that written expression can influence reality outside of narrative fiction.
An interesting and well-argued book, Castagnino’s volume is a valuable addition to the ever-growing bibliography on the detective novel. Each chapter is a good example of insightful and very detailed close readings of the most important crime novels to have ever graced Italian literature. Castagnino’s work is likely to appeal to a very broad audience. Its accessibility renders it suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses on the Italian crime novel, as well as for scholars interested in literary characterization and the role of the intellectual in Italian society.