Reading the Genre Codes in Giorgio Scerbanenco's Hybridised Romanzi Rosa

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine the techniques of and the potentialities inherent in the blending of popular genres in selected novels from Giorgio Scerbanenco’s middle period (specifically, 1949-1963). Long characterised as popular romances (romanzi rosa), a form of literature particularly susceptible to critical disdain, these works have received virtually no study. As a result of Scerbanenco’s posthumous designation as the father of Italian noir, the small amount of attention directed towards them has privileged their grittier elements and worked to reassess them ‒ as crime novels, as adventure stories, or as noir. After exploring the reasons why such genre reassignment is possible, I argue that they are best assessed as hybrid forms. Although the view that Scerbanenco habitually blended genres is now widely held, I take a more even-handed approach than is usual in the critical literature, arguing that the sentimental strand of romance has a weight and validity equal to that of the darker strand of crime or noir they certainly contain. I employ a mix of genre and reader-response theories to underpin my close analysis of these works. First I look at how Scerbanenco skilfully incorporates the codes of the popular romance, crime novel, Western, and spy story into his texts. I then discuss the processes of hybridisation and, in particular, the implications for the reader, who can choose to read these novels either mono-generically or as more ambivalent and nuanced hybrids. Given the traditional gender divide between “feminine” romance and “masculine” crime/adventure/noir, I explore the alternative constructions of gender models offered by the hybrid text. Finally, I draw on Scerbanenco’s wartime philosophical writings, exploring links between ideas expressed in them and potential readings of these hybridised romances, and concluding that it is in the genre blend that the richest readings are to be found.