Italianness created from the pleasure of (using) your mother tongue. The past and the future in Michele Mari novels

Abstract

Michele Mari, who debuted towards the end of the 80s of the 20th century, has written prose, poetry and drama and is considered to be one of the classics of literature. His name is very often mentioned together with such famous writers as Gadda and Consolo. Already his literary debut showed him in opposition to the contemporary style and themes that ruled the literature. When it comes to those two aspects of a literary work, Mari uses a baggage of literary tradition, both Italian and European, without limiting it only to the postmodern technique of quote and reference. The tradition in his works is used in a creative way and is converted into a matter which allows for an original interpretation of the contemporary times. This article aims at showing selected linguistic and thematic elements which are transformed in this way in the first three novels of the author.