A brani. Paratesto e intertestualità in «Gioventù cannibale»

Abstract

The article interprets the paratext of Gioventu cannibale an instrument for the construction of a commercial case, as well as a starting point for a critical reassessment of the oeuvre, intended as an example of Italian late-postmodernism. Firstly, cultural models and premises of Italian cannibali are introduced (e.g. North-American pulp, avant-pop, and the refusal of a distinction between high brow and low brow culture). After a brief analysis of the title and the back-cover (the latter also offering unexpected ethical and religious suggestions, a typical trait of Italian postmodernism according to Remo Ceserani), the models of an alleged cannibali esthetic and philosophy, introduced in the premise by Daniele Brolli, are critically highlighted. A presence (the afterword by Emanuele Trevi) and an absence (the biographies of the authors), detected during the comparison between the first and the second edition of the text, allow a reflection on the post-mortem status of cannibali in 2006, yet an unfulfilled promise of Italian literature. Effects of intertextuality, visible in the paratext of the story Il mondo dell’amore by Aldo Nove, are lastly analysed in order to provide an example of the parodic but serious relation between the late 20th-century Italian avant-gardes and cannibali.