When the Mediterranean hosts a detective story: Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Andrea Camilleri, Jean-Claude Izzo es una tesis doctoral de Anna Maria Valsecchi, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, 2003-04, que he descubierto gracias al blog Detectives Beyond Borders. Copio aquí el Resumen en inglés, aunque creo que el original está en italiano.
Abstract
I approached these different “thrilling worlds” in different periods, discovering, in all the three various narrative similarities. These common elements made me think to be able to trace back the various works to the same narrative kind. I made some researches, most of all through internet, newspaper articles and literary criticism, and I discovered that in fact the three authors are often considered a part of the same category of detective story, defined “Mediterranean detective story”.
I approached these different “thrilling worlds” in different periods, discovering, in all the three various narrative similarities. These common elements made me think to be able to trace back the various works to the same narrative kind. I made some researches, most of all through internet, newspaper articles and literary criticism, and I discovered that in fact the three authors are often considered a part of the same category of detective story, defined “Mediterranean detective story”.
The first part of this study will be devoted to the history of detective story, of which it seems important to offer a general overview. I will go through the main steps of the evolution of the genre taken into consideration, from the origins to the noir, stopping on the most representative authors and periods and putting in evidence the influence always exerted by social context on the various kinds of detective fiction.
The second, more specific, part will be focused on a comparative analysis of the three authors. I will try to put in evidence the particular situation of detective story in the countries to which the three writers belong, the expressive originality of each of them, their narrative style and the different intentions that drove them to choose this narrative form. I will separately examine the detective stories by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Andrea Camilleri and Jean-Claude Izzo, paying a particular attention to common elements which are present in the three detective fiction cycles: the character’s psychology, family, the gastronomic element, the philosophy of life.
Como señala Peter Rozovsky en su blog, seguro que fue muy divertido escribir esta tesis.
A Crime is Afoot 