摘要：Italian fiction in the last two decades has been characterised by an increasing interest of both publishinghouses and readers in detective fiction. This is not surprising as, over the last two centuries, this genrehas been one of the most popular narrative forms. However, the number of Italian crime writers hasincreased not only in the traditional 'serie gialla' of Mondadori (1929 saw the birth of this series with itsdistinctive yellow cover which eventually gave the name to the detective genre in the Italian language,the giallo) but also among the volumes of highbrow publishers such as Einaudi. This phenomenon,which deserves further critical attention, has been characteristically undermined by literary critics,despite the fact that the rebirth of the Italian novel, in 1980, with Umberto Eco's Il nome della Rosa, canbe viewed as the first sign of a renewed Italian interest in this traditionally Anglo-Saxon genre. Otherestablished writers, during the 1980s and early 1990s, have also demonstrated a sustained interest in thisgenre, the best example being Antonio Tabucchi. Besides, there is a considerable number of youngerwriters interested in the tradition of the roman policier ¨C to name but a few Carlo Lucarelli, MarcelloFois, Andrea G. Pinketts, Pino Cacucci, Danila Comastri Montanari, Paolo Colaprico, LorianoMacchiavelli and the duo Macchiavelli/Guccini. Is this the rebirth of the detective novel in Italy. Foryears critics have discussed the death of traditional narrative and literary genres, but there is a newgeneration of writers who exploit the old genres. In France, for instance, the works of Daniel Pennac -whose commercial and critical success in Italy is significant - Didier Daenincks, and of more establishedwriters such as J. Echenoz, are a clear example of the enduring legacy of the noirin contemporaryfiction. Petronio, who has worked extensively on the Italian giallo, in 1978, pointed towards the biasagainst this popular genre in Italy. During a congress in 1978-79 on Trivialliteratur, Petronioemphasised the prejudice and snobbism of the Italian academic and literary establishment against thedetective novel.This attitude has changed little since then and many still seem to view the gialloin termsof the Literature/popular literature binary, with the implicit denial of proper literary status to the latter.Gramsci posed a similar question, in 1930, in a long note 'Sul romanzo poliziesco', in which he arguedthat: 'in questa letteratura poliziesca si sono sempre avute due correnti: una meccanica, d'intrigo, l'altraartistica: Chesterton oggi ¨¨ il maggiore rappresentante dell'aspetto "artistico", come lo fu un tempo Poe',shifting the focus on the issue of artistic merit. Todorov, in The typology of detective fiction, claimed thatin High Literature the mark of quality is to break the canon; in mass literature the best novel is thatwhich does not go beyond the canon otherwise, Todorov says, from roman policierit becomesliterature. Do we still need to redefine this genre or can we simply accept that in our postmodern age theboundaries between different literary genres are constantly being crossed and re-defined
