'Heroes' facing catastrophe. «3012» by Sebastiano Vassalli and some Italian dystopias

Abstract

In the representation of the ‘hero’ who, in the contemporary Italian dystopian novels Pinocchio. 2112 by P. Donà, Something, out there by B. Arpaia, The doctrine of evil by A. Berselli and 3012. The year of the Prophet by S. Vassalli, is confronted with different types of catastrophes, reviving the topos of descensus ad inferos, there are several ways of combining the relationship between authentic and inauthentic, a fundamental element of the established figural repertoire of the dystopian genre. We focus in particular on the narratological mechanisms of the points of view by which the reader is confronted with the traditional pedagogical function of the dystopian apologue. Thus, we can see the originality of the structure of Vassalli’s 3012, a novel which – although in line with the author’s conception, which can be found in the comparison with the rest of his narrative production – proposes a figure of ‘funny’, within the forms of Menipp’s satire and parody.