Letteratura e interpretazione: Leonardo Sciascia e la tragedia di un politicante

Abstract

This article provides an explanation for the enduring success of Leonardo Sciascia’s L’affaire Moro (1978), a pamphlet on the kidnapping and murder of political leader Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades. The article shows how Sciascia understood and was able to represent the cluster of feelings, ideas and political-ideological tensions which became inextricably linked to the Moro affair and are still evident in Italian discourse today. Sciascia’s representation is based on a narration presenting the politician Aldo Moro as a classic tragedy hero, a figure in which a large number of Italians found and still find a model for that cluster which is very difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle.