The paratopia in the police novels of Leonardo Sciascia

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the concept of paratopia, formulated by the linguist Dominique Maingueneau, in the police novels Il giorno della civeta (1961) and A ciascuno il suo (1966), by Leonardo Sciascia. According to the linguist, the paratopia, which consists in a non-place, is both a condition and a product of the literary work. This concept, presented by Maingueneau under the title Literary Discourse, is related to the author of the literary enunciation, which places himself at the same time present and absent of his place of writing.    The writer transpose this paradoxical relationship with his place of writing into his work, putting all narrative elements in the service of his paratopic situation. Thus, we will reflect upon the paratopic condition of the writer, journalist and political Leonardo Sciascia and how he transposed it to his police novels, called gialli in Italy, due to the cover color of a series of police novels published in the country.