Abstract

This essay analyses short stories composed by Vitaliano Brancati between 1931 and 1934, published in journals and absent in the collections edited by the author. The focus of the analysis is the author’s estrangement from fascism and the progressive manifestation of his political and moral dissent. Thanks to unpublished letters sent by Brancati to Pietro Pancrazi and Mario Robertazzi, it is possible to identify the author’s moral perplexities and to understand the personal rielaboration of his own crisis experience. The analysis of the short stories is developed on two levels, intrinsically communicating: the thematic level and the narratological level.