La città invivibile di Giovanni Arpino

The city is a fundamental presence in Giovanni Arpino’s novels: it is represented as a hostile, unlivable place, an image of evil that pervades and controls the world, even if the city is irremediably the center of modernity. This contribution analyzes the textual choices through which the writer has portrayed an ‘infernal’ urban imaginary in his pages, also focusing on the numerous references to the various sensorial registers: not only colours, but also sounds, smells, flavours, tactile perceptions contribute in fact to create a scenario that sometimes takes on almost apocalyptic features.