“Farsi terra e paese” tra margini, fughe e ritorni. La nominatio alla periferia dell’azione in La luna e i falò di Cesare Pavese

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how names in La luna e i falò represent a mirror of Pavese’s need to live and act on a sort of symbolic margin. In particular, it will be analyzed why the writer chooses not to give a first name to the main character of the novel but he assigns to him two nicknames, Anguilla and l’Americano, which have an important meaning because they refer to his double condition of illegitimate child, as he is known in his town, and foreign man who has no country of origin. The nicknames are related to his will to escape and to recover his whished roots as well.