Relative indirette libere e causali indirette libere nella narrativa italiana ottocentesca

Abstract

In this paper I will analyze two subordinate clauses which can be frequently found within free indirect reported speech (FIRS, in the paper DIL): relative and causal clauses. After a short illustration of FIRS I will examine the two clauses with an analysis of the passages in FIRS from Italian narrative literature of the XIX century (especially Manzoni and Verga). A relative or a causal clause can recur within a FIRS passage, can open it or can constitute on its own a FIRS passage becoming, respectively, free indirect relative clause (FIRC, in the paper RIL) and free indirect causal clause (FICC, in the paper CIL). FIRC and FICC share two peculiarities: a) They have a rhematic function; b) They are cases of “hypotactizated parataxis” (FIRC and FICC, as subordinate clauses, connect a FIRS passage to the diegesis without the break of the normal FIRS, paratactically juxtaposed to the narratum). For this last peculiarity FIRC and FICC represented two important stylistic means for the novelists of the Realism to attain the impersonality of the author in the novel through a close fusion between the voice of the author and the voice of the characters.