Abstract

This article investigates Leonardo Sciascia’s non-fiction writing to demonstrate how the need to extract the obscure multifaceted truth from the underground of reality and bring it to the surface determines his choice to ally with some partisan authors (particularly Pirandello, Savinio, and Calvino) in the battle against «deep writers». Savinio claims, for example, that there is no depth that «intelligence cannot make superficial», except for stupidity, which remains deep. Intelligence thus belongs solely to the surface, as in the case of Stendhal, who chooses not to adopt ‘depthism’. Sciascia learns this lesson from Savinio, who is often referred to, and returns to it so frequently that it becomes his preferred method in criticism and fiction