Nostos and Labyrinth

Abstract

The many references in Vincenzo Consolo's work to the classic theme of the return journey and in particular that of Ulysses can be considered as a real leitmotiv. In the repeated quotation to the Homerian Nostos one can observe how the Sicilian author elaborates a constellation of preoccupations that reveals itself to be fundamental in his narrative and essay activity. In this nucleus come together beams coming from a wide spectrum ranging from the most explicitly political or ethical-moral and the most intimate reflection on the artistic object, passing through central aspects in Consolo such as those of an existential type, the concern for the territory or those related to the stylistic and formal destruction of the traditional novel, among others. The article starts from the description of this reality, and the critical analyses that have been made of it, in order to try to draw a parallel between it and the use of the labyrinth theme in Consolo, taking as the main focus of attention the episode of the spiral prison that appears in the final part of Il sorriso dell'ignoto marinaio.

Keywords

• narrative
• essay
• nostos
• labyrinth
• ethics of consolian writing
• Sicilian literature and territory