Secrets and Puzzles: Silence and the Unsaid in Contemporary Italian Writing by Nicoletta Simborowski (review)

Abstract

MLR, 100.3, 2005 843 Secrets and Puzzles: Silence and the Unsaid in Contemporary Italian Writing. By NicolettaSimborowski. Oxford: Legenda. 2003. x+177 pp. ?35- ISBN 1900755 -74-2. The power of suggesting more than what is said is not restricted to poetry alone, but is a characteristic of the best prose as well. A classic example of this technique in Italian literature is to be found in Manzoni's / promessi sposi, where the simple phrase at the end ofthe episode ofthe nun of Monza, 'la sventurata rispose', suggests infinitelymore to the imagination of the reader than do the several pages of scabrous details of the misdeeds of this nun in Fermo e Lucia, the earlier version of the novel. However, the notion ofthe unsaid, as much as itis fascinating, and indeed central in the discussion of literature, is elusive and open to interpretation; hence, it must be pinned down. This is what Nicoletta Simborowski does in the firstchapter of her thought provoking volume, where she provides the theoretical background for a discussion of the unsaid, summarizing the contributions of theorists including Ducrot, Derrida, Kermode, Bakhtin, Barthes, Blanchot, Lyotard, Bloom, and Collini. The importance of twentieth-century critical approaches is also underlined: these include feminist criticism, work in the fantastic, and psychoanalytical studies. The volume is divided into six chapters. After the introductory section mentioned above there are four chapters, each devoted to the analysis of a specific text by a well-known post-war Italian writer, respectively Primo Levi, Cesare Pavese, Natalia Ginzburg, and Francesca Sanvitale. The sixth and finalchapter is not concerned with the literary analysis of a text but examines more generally the phenomenon of the Einaudi publishing house, to which these authors are connected, 'in the context of post-war attitudes and tastes in literature' (p. 5). The choice of the period and ofthe authors is significant. Simborowski finds that, despite living in a period characterized by freedom of expression (following the era of Fascist censorship), these writers decided, at a certain point in their career, to censor their own work. She provides examples of omission or self-censorship, and elicits curiosity as to the reasons behind the censorship. The second chapter examines Levi's Se questo e un uomo according to a poetics of ritegno,or restraint. Through ritegno,which is seen here as 'both a stylistic technique and an emotional response' (p. 29), Levi does not burden his readers with oppressive details, but at the same time awakens in them an awareness of the enormity of what is not described. This element of reticence, motivated by respect for the reader, is seen by Simborowski as the key to Levi's success and to the approachability of his work on the Holocaust. The analysis is impeccable. Less convincing, however, and perhaps unfounded, is the discussion of Levi's alleged homophobia or unease with sexuality which, according to Simborowski, is expressed as distaste for Henri, one of the prisoners Levi meets in the concentration camp. This is an example of the arbitrariness to which the notion of the unsaid lends itself, and one wonders if the unsaid offers a useful means of investigation of the literary text when it is used as the basis of conjecture regarding the personality of the writer. The third chapter revolves around Pavese's novel La casa in collina and an earlier short story, 'La famiglia', which sketched the same theme and plot. Exclusions and elaborations in the novel, in comparison with the short story,highlight the protagonist's incapacity for commitment in both the private and the political spheres. This also permits an insightful analysis ofthe theme of 'youth', which in the novel stands for thoughtless, conscience-free violence and makes 'the novel a powerful condemnation of violence of any kind, including that perpetrated by the partisans' (p. 68). With these observations Simborowski sets out to reveal Pavese's concealed political agenda, which is that of justifying his choice of neutrality as well as encoding an apologia for the Fascist sympathies he entertained during the firstyears of the conflict. 844 Reviews The fourth chapter considers the family language implemented by Ginzburg in Lessico famigliare as a 'background music' which halts...