Notes on Hybrid Novels and Ethical Discourse

The article investigates contemporary European novels that challenge the borders between fiction and nonfiction. Analyzing, among others, works by Antonio Franchini, Javer Cercas and Jonathan Littell, I seek to demonstrate that today’s use of a hybrid genre serves authors as a narrative device to prove the factual truth of their narrations, therefore assuring their social relevance, without losing the capacity to convey a archetypical, meaning of human history. From this perspective I analyze the connections between literature and ethics, suggesting a theory of recognition between the reader and the character and examining in particular the problematic case of the reader’s identification with a morally flawed character.