Declinazioni del comico nei racconti di Stefano Benni

Abstract

Stefano Benni’s work, a blend of biting social satire and fantasy, has won him the reputation of Italy’s leading humorous writer. A prolific columnist and author of novels, short stories, poems, and plays, Benni has been playing with language and literary genres since his debut in the late 70s, becoming one of the early Italian writers to engage with postmodern humorous practices. In this article I discuss Benni’s collections of short fiction as an instance of these practices and attempt to evaluate their place in the author’s wider oevre.