ABSTRACT
The twentieth-century Italian historical novel has effected a shift from traditional, illusionist philosophies of history and narrative forms to the anti-illusionist philosophies and modes of narration which predominate today. By drawing together the theoretical considerations proposed by Bakhtin and Sprang, the illusionist historical novel may be construed as that in which the philosophy of history creates, of the events, protagonists, narrative form and language, a monumental edifice — History. The new perspectivist view that was beginning to replace the realist perception, and its exaltation of flux over permanence, is reflected even in the first major Italian historical novel of the century, Luigi Pirandello's I vecchi e i giovani, which is also the first example of the anti-illusionist mode of historical novel writing in Italy. An interesting contrast to Pirandello's I vecchi e i giovani is offered by Elsa Morantes extremely influential, iconoclastic and best-selling La Storia.
