The Novel as Investigation: Leonardo Sciascia, Dacia Maraini, and Antonio Tabucchi

145 Pages·2006·7.12 MB·English

by  JoAnn Cannon

THE NOVEL AS INVESTIGATION:
LEONARDO SCIASCIA, DACIA MARAINI,
AND ANTONIO TABUCCHI
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JOANN CANNON
The Novel as Investigation:
Leonardo Sciascia, Dacia Maraini,
and Antonio Tabucchi
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2006
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN-10: 0-8020-9114-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-8020-9114-7
Printed on acid-free paper
Toronto Italian Studies
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Cannon, JoAnn
The novel as investigation : Leonardo Sciascia, Dacia Maraini, and
Antonio Tabucchi / JoAnn Cannon.
(Toronto Italian studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8020-9114-7
ISBN-10: 0-8020-9114-8
1. Sciascia, Leonardo. 2. Maraini, Dacia. 3. Tabucchi, Antonio, 1943-.
4. Detective and mystery stories, Italian - History and criticism.
I. Title. II. Series.
PQ4181.D4C36 2006 853'.0872'090914 C2006-900552-4
This book has been published with the assistance of a grant from the Divi-
sion of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies and the Office of Research,
University of California, Davis.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
To Bob and Matt
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1 The Power of the Pen in Leonardo Sciascia's Porte aperte 17
2 The Death of the Detective in II cavaliere e la morte 31
3 In Search of Isolina 45
4 Voci and the Conventions of the Giallo 59
5 Ethics and Literature in Sostiene Pereira: Una testimonianza 73
6 Detection, Activism, and Writing in La testa perduta di Damasceno
Monteiro 87
Conclusion 101
Notes 107
Bibliography 123
Index 131
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Acknowledgments
I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Dacia Maraini, for
her hospitality while I was in Rome and for her willingness to share
her insights with our students at the University of California, Davis,
during two visits to northern California sponsored by the Istituto
italiano di cultura. Many thanks to Antonio Tabucchi for the pleasure
of his company at a lively luncheon in Pisa and to Lorenzo Greco for
organizing this congenial gathering. I would also like to express my
gratitude to the American Academy in Rome for the opportunity to
work on this project as a visiting scholar in the spring of 2004 and to
the National Endowment for the Humanities and other foundations
for their support of the American Academy. I am indebted to the many
undergraduate and graduate students, in particular Shawn Doubiago,
Andy Matt, and Loredana Giacalone, with whom I have discussed the
works of Maraini, Tabucchi, and Sciascia and whose insights and curi-
osity have stimulated my thinking over the past few years; and to
Charles Klopp for his insight and suggestions. Finally, I extend a spe-
cial note of thanks to Ron Schoeffel at the University of Toronto Press
for his encouragement and support.
An earlier version of chapter 4 appeared as 'Voci and the Conven-
tions of the Giallo' in Italica 78 (Summer 2001): 193-203, and chapter 6
was published as 'Detection, Activism and Writing in Tabucchi's La
testa perduta di Damascene Monteiro' in Quaderni d'italianistica 23, no. 1
(2002): 163-72.1 wish to thank the respective editors of these journals
for publishing my work and for granting permission to reprint it here.