Fact and Fiction in ‘noir’. Metanarrative Strategies in Carlo Lucarelli's Crime Fictions

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the literary and televisual production of Carlo Lucarelli, highlighting in particular how his works interweave actual and fictional events at different levels. On one side, we will analyse the way through which the Italian criminal history and crime news enter in his novels and Tv series, taking into special account the fictional worlds of Inspector Coliandro, Inspector Grazia Negro and Police Commissioner De Luca. On the other, we will focus on how Lucarelli employs the conventions of the true crime docudrama in order to narrate and fictionalise criminal events that actually happened. This transmedia approach highlights a peculiar feature of Lucarelli’s crime fiction, that is a particular use of metalepses: the author exploits his own ‘figure’ to break the limit between realty and fiction.