The Narrative Frames of "Mastro-don Gesualdo": An Analysis and a Theoretical Proposal

Abstract

The essay argues that Mastro-don Gesualdo’s narrative technique copes with the impersonal attributes of I Malavoglia, and that from Verga’s point of view these two novels are perfectly coherent. Moreover, Verga supports the so-called (by Franz K. Stanzel) «reflector mode», a figuralized kind of narrative which is the actual hallmark of his verista, naturalistic literary research. Specifically, one of the sub-frames operating in Mastro-don Gesualdo shows that a sort of subject-zero is at work, and that its ‘voice’ may be compared with the features of a cinematic narrator.