ABSTRACT
In the classics of Romantic realism, in fact, the levelling violence of bourgeois derision is usually confronted with a morally superior counterpart — be it a form of light-hearted rural mirth or the grotesque and pathetic innocence of the victim. Coming back from the author's irony to the level of contents, it seems evident that Svevo establishes a systematic connection between laughter and the semantic areas of falsehood and violence. Yet, while Flaubert at least believes that laughing about everything can be a philosophical consolation against the inherent stupidity of life, Svevo is far more suspicious about its cognitive value — laughter hides too many things, and it dissimulates the truth instead of revealing it. While Ojetti's character is too inherently earnest to indulge in hypocrisy and bad faith, Svevo's Zeno is perfectly comfortable with lying; humour to him is a means of survival, as well as an escape from the trial of conscience.
