Una ripetizione straniante

Abstract

Repetition and estrangement The fixed idea in a tale of I. U. Tarchetti The article aims to investigate the process of estrangement through the tale La lettera U, by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti. By adopting the point of view of a madman, Tarchetti stages an estrangement that affects the entire discourse of the character. The fixed idea, a symptom of monomania (the psychiatric definition of this type of delirium at the time) gives rise to a narrative device with a strong alienating potential, able to highlight the differences between the notion of Šklovskij's ostranenie and estrangement as presented in fantastic literature.