I barbari in mezzo a noi. Articolazioni di razza e classe tra Misteri e romanzo coloniale italiano

This article investigates the relationship between the 19th century literary tradition of Mysteries and the colonial novels published in Italy in the first decades of the 20th century. Employing a morphological methodology, the process of colonial re-signification which occured within to the narrative devices developed by the Mysteries will be highlighted. The article therefore proposes an analysis of the only Italian Mystery explicitly dedicated to narrating the colonial context: Tertulliano Gandolfi's I misteri dell'Africa italiana. Furthermore, the argument will focus on two narrative devices typical of the colonial novel, derived from the Mysteries model: the wild dance and its specular counterpart, the criminal mob.