Is "Sicilian truth” an oxymoron?
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published 20/07/2008
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SummaryTomasi di Lampedusa’s Il Gattopardo is by no means the kind of text that invites the reader to take it lightly and straightforwardly. The subtle irony running through the piece constantly implores the reader to interpret and re-interpret various scenes and the characters within them—in fact, in a letter to his friend Enrico Merlo dated May 30, 1957, Lampedusa writes of Il Gattopardo that “ogni parola è stata pesata e molte cose non sono dette chiaramente ma solo accennate.” More specifically, I plan to argue that Lampedusa employs irony on the narrative level through the ordering of scenes, and that he furthermore facilitates ironical interpretation on the part of the reader through the narrator’s limited presentation of characters’ inner consciousness. While initially it is unclear how Lampedusa intends the reader to extract the truth of a scene from the irony layered over it, he ultimately provides his reader with the means for doing so through both the narrator’s commentary and character behavior and dialogue.
Table of Contents
- Lampedusa's irony on the narrative level.
- Partial insight into Tancredi's consciousness.
- Truth and interpretation.
- Conclusion.
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