Conversations in Sicily
Encyclopedia
Conversazione in Sicilia first appeared in serial form in Letteratura in 1938, and was first published as the novel Nome e Lagrime in 1941. The story concerns Silvestro Ferrauto and his return to Sicily after a long absence. The work contains a foreword & afterword by Ernest Hemingway
. "Conversazione in Sicilia" literally translates as Conversation in Sicily; the translator took the liberty of pluralising the title.
The major themes of the work include detachment, poverty, exploitation and marital fidelity & respect.
The protagonist and author share many of the same experiences - growing up in a railway family, travelling widely by rail around Sicily and Italy, working in northern Italy as a typesetter, and illness.
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Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
. "Conversazione in Sicilia" literally translates as Conversation in Sicily; the translator took the liberty of pluralising the title.
The major themes of the work include detachment, poverty, exploitation and marital fidelity & respect.
Plot summary
Silvestro Ferrauto is a Sicilian working as a typesetter in Milan, who beset by strange feelings of hopelessness, decides to visit Sicily after receiving a letter from his father which reveals that the father has abandoned Ferrauto's mother. Ferrauto has not visited Sicily since leaving at the age of 15 and ends up on the train to Sicily apparently without conscious thought. Ferrauto then has various conversations with a number of Sicilians on the way to, and in, Sicily. His return to Sicily and his new understanding of his mother from an adult point of view seems to calm his hopelessness. In a drunken state he seems to have a conversation with his dead brother, or at the age he was when he was alive. The novel closes with his father sobbing in the kitchen whilst the mother scrubs his feet.Characters
- Silvestro Ferrauto - the protagonist
- The Father - appears in the end while his mother is washing his feet
- The Wife - never appears in person
- Sicilian orange pickers - first conversation is with a Sicilian labourer
- "With Whiskers" - a Sicilian on the train, a state functionary
- "Without Whiskers" - a Sicilian on the train, a state functionary
- The Big Lombard - a Sicilian on the train
- Concezione Ferrauto - the mother
- Grandpa - the father of the mother, deceased
- Calogera - the Knife Grinder
- Ezechiele - the saddlemaker
- Porfirio - the drapier
- Colombo - the vintner
- Liborio - the brother, deceased
Literary significance and criticism
The novel is usually interpreted by critics as either a criticism of fascist Italy, disguised by the use of allegoric figures and by the adoption a non-realistic style, or as the chronicle of a dream-like voyage. Themes revolving around social injustice, which will be central in Vittorini's future work, are already present.The protagonist and author share many of the same experiences - growing up in a railway family, travelling widely by rail around Sicily and Italy, working in northern Italy as a typesetter, and illness.
Adaptation
The novel serves as the basis for Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's film Sicilia!Sicilia!
Sicilia! is a 1999 Italian black-and-white film directed by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub. Sicilia! follows a man returning to visit his homeland of Sicily, after living in New York City for many years...
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Footnotes
- Conversations in Sicily, Elio VittoriniElio VittoriniElio Vittorini was an Italian writer and novelist. He was a contemporary of Cesare Pavese and an influential voice in the modernist school of novel writing. His best-known work is the anti-fascist novel Conversations in Sicily, for which he was jailed when it was published in 1941. The first U.S...
, translated by Alane Salierno Mason