La forma del romanzo-inchiesta e la passione di Leonardo Sciascia per le arti figurative: analisi del Cavaliere e la Morte

Abstract

The title of the short novel Il cavaliere e la morte is inspired by that of an engraving by Albrecht Dürer entitled Knight, Death and Devil (1513 or 1514), which was also reproduced on the cover of the first Adelphi edition of 1989. The essay analyzes the text, highlights its main themes (for example, the strenuous search for the Truth and the denunciation of the mechanisms of the oppressive machine of Power) and the main rhetorical strategies; furthermore, it intends to emphasize the centrality of the image that appeared on the cover of the first edition, illustrating the reasons why the choice of the latest curators not to re-propose it, replacing it with another engraving also signed by Dürer, is to be considered as erroneous, given its function as a commentary (and as a key to the text). The analysis also focuses on the form of the investigative novel and mentions Sciascia’s well-known passion for figurative art.

Keywords

• paratext
• death
• novel
• image
• investigation
• truth