9 - The Italian novel in search of identity

Summary

The writings and biographies of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and Pier Paolo Pasolini seem so different as to prevent any useful comparison. Yet the novels for which these two authors are best known – Pasolini's Ragazzi di vita and Una vita violenta; and Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo – have in common an identical cultural environment. In fact, while they gestated in the minds of their authors in entirely different ways, these novels were all received and reviewed by the same critical establishment and, within the span of a few brief years, launched into the same publishing marketplace. One can even say that Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo and Pasolini's Una vita violenta crossed paths, and after an almost contemporaneous first printing (the former in November of 1958, and the latter in May of 1959), the two works shared the stage at the 1959 Strega Prize ceremony, the prestigious award for the best narrative in Italy. The prize was awarded to Lampedusa's novel, while Pasolini's book took third place. Pasolini's two novels and Lampedusa's posthumous novel (the only one the Sicilian nobleman ever completed, which was approved for publication after his death) are also comparable in terms of the happy fate bestowed upon them by the larger reading public.