Nanni Balestrini’s Gli invisibili : Fictional Spaces for an Epic Monument to the Seventies

Abstract

The present article proposes a reading of Nanni Balestrini's Gli invisibili that emphasizes and calls attention to the novel's peculiar re-working of the narrative dynamics characterizing the epic genre. It is suggested that Balestrini's working within the narrative possibilities opened up by the epic representation of memory arises from a stance that is both polemical and oppositional. The article also presents a cursory comparison between Gli invisibili and Natalia Ginzburg's Caro Michele.