L’Incognito e l’Innominato (a tacer dell’Anonimo). La negazione del nome in Manzoni e Sciascia

Abstract

One of the main characters in Sciascia’s 1966 play I mafiosi is called «l’Incognito» (‘the Unknown’). The rhetorical device of making a name of the absence of a name has different functions. L’«Innominato» (‘the Unnamed’), in Manzoni’s novel The Betrothed, personifies a positive transition, spiritual renewal and redemption. On the contrary, Sciascia’s Unknown is emblematic of the pledge to secrecy typical of a society built on the alliance between politics and organized crime.