«Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead». Su "Una questione privata" di Beppe Fenoglio

Starting from some recent readings of Una questione privata, the article proposes an overall interpretation of the meaning of the novel and a clarification of the most delicate knots constituted by the ambiguous ending and the function of chapter XII apparently digressive. A precondition is to reconstruct the psychology of the protagonist Milton and to define exactly the nature of his love as literary idealization and self-referential projection. On this basis, it is possible to recognize in the development of the novel a path of formation and conversion, which leads to the awareness of the illusory character of the ideal and to disenchantment. This path, which may imply a rebirth of Milton and therefore his survival, is to be linked to Fenoglio's disenchantment with the situation of post-war Italy (with the evident betrayal of the ideals of resistance), which is accompanied by the intention to found the reasons for political and civil commitment on new foundations.