ABSTRACT
A key hermeneutical mode employed by writers, filmmakers, cultural historians, and literary critics to account for some of the most crucial events of the anni di piombo has been the sacrificial narrative, the tale of the unjust victimization and scapegoating of an innocent. This has been the case for two of the most symbolically charged murders of post-war Italian history, which also became crucial turning points in the collective understanding of the shortcoming of radical political violence. Pier Paolo Pasolini and Aldo Moro were seen as victims of both the political 'system' and of the social climate that had emerged in the country in those years. Following their assassinations the references to the sacrificial and victimary dimension of the two events were pervasive both in the media and in cultural and intellectual analyses. Various commentators saw a common thread running between the two tragic events: Maria Antonietta Macciocchi and Leonardo Sciascia.
