Individual Destinies between History and Literature in Leonardo Sciascia’s “Antimony”

Document Type : Original Article

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Ain Shams University

Abstract

The present article analyzes Leonardo Sciascia’s long story “Antimony,” published in Gli Zii di Sicilia in 1960. It suggests interpreting it through the reflections of György Lukács on the creation of characters in his The Historical Novel (1937) translated in Italian in 1965. Various critics interested in Sciascia’s work such as Claude d’Ambroise, Massimo Onofri, and Michela Montante have referred to the influence of the ideas of the Hungarian literary critic and philosopher on the Sicilian writer. Yet, such influence has not been the subject of a study per se. Focusing on “Antimony” through its presentation of individuals affected by the Spanish Civil War, and by navigating the history of its composition and Sciascia’s ambivalence regarding the genre to choose while composing it, the current study suggests a possible intersection between Lukács’ thought and Sciascia’s poetics in the presentation of what Lukács calls “individual destinies” which summarizes the problems of that time in Italy’s history. “Antimony” tells the story of individuals from “below,” those who experience history directly “partly making it, partly enduring it”. By comparing the two works, this paper seeks to engage in Comparative Literature by approaching literary as a source to understand history.

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