Il Risorgimento è di scena, ovvero le squisite menzogne di Gesualdo Bufalino

From the end of the nineteenth century up to this day Italian literature offers a negative representation and a critical judgment of the Risorgimento era. This fundamental and foundational moment of Italy’s history is seen by writers as a kind of failed revolution, a farce intended to “change everything so that nothing changes”. A A closer look at the production of historical novels about this age shows that especially the narrative of southern authors, and primarily that of Sicilians, conveys this critical idea to the nation. The present study relates to a novel with a postmodern setting of the Risorgimento – Night’s Lies (1988) by Gesualdo Bufalino. The reflection starts from the typological analysis of the novel and then seeks to establish, on the one hand, the similarities and differences in reference to the historical novels of the Risorgimento and, on the other, the principles of the vision of history and literature characteristic of this Sicilian author.