La fine del tempo. Apocalisse e post-apocalisse nella narrativa novecentesca

Abstract

The twentieth century was profoundly marked by the disturbing epiphany of a renewed and recrudescent decadence, an unstoppable twilight that affected social, ecological and technological models, which proved to be failed panaceas of human absurdity. This overwhelming sense of discomfort and devastation is reflected along a double articulation within the volume: apocalypse and post-apocalypse. In the first case, the recurrence of apocalyptic models and paradigms, mostly of a religious nature, can be found within a series of texts, novels and short stories by authors belonging to the Italian and African-American tradition. Sciascia, Landolfi, Vonnegut and Ellison represent the end of the world in their works through autonomous and surprising visions and stylistic pronouncements. The thin ridge on which they move extends between the rubble of the lost world and the stylistic ruins, in some way that apocalypse of narration indicated by Benjamin, adding the anguish of the end to that of style. In the second, the investigation shifts to the interpretation of stories that take their lead from a catastrophic event that has already occurred and whose consequences must be evaluated in the light of what has survived: the remains, the traces of a world that suddenly disappeared. Manganelli, Lessing, McCarthy, Morselli wander among the ruins of a self-imploding civilization, revealing unexpected outcomes and above all disturbing signs.