Cerini nel buio: memoria, lutto e ironia nella scrittura di Aldo Zargani

Abstract

Aldo Zargani (Turin, 1933-), who lived through the anti-Semitic persecution in Piedmont between 1938 and 1945, is the author of two autobiographical books, Per violino solo (1995) and Certe promesse d’amore (1997), as well as several stories and essays, some of which are collected in In bilico (2017). These works form an autobiographical macrotext in which each text positions itself against the background of the previous ones and is linked to them by cross-references. I examine the macrotext with a focus on the narrating self’s need to bear witness on behalf of the murdered members of his extended family – mostly non-Jewish and mostly young – to his readers, thus creating continuity between past and present. Drawing on theories of irony, I also look at the way Zargani uses irony to comment on death and to express his fear that memories of the past may vanish.

Keywords

• memory
• history
• autobiography
• family
• irony
• Levi (Primo)