Abstract

The paper concerns the duplicity of Natalia Ginzburg's works, that include wider texts (novels) and short textual forms (tales, essays, memories). The paper analyzes the main features of the essays (the narrativity, the constant presence of autobiographical elements, the ethical-reflective tone), trying to explain the relationship between the refusal of the autobiography and the continuous recourse to the memory in non-narrative texts. This "double gaze" is the way chosen by Natalia Ginzburg to solve the contrast, within her profession, between the vocation to "writing stories" and the essay writing.