“The Ambiguity of the Hypotheses”: four landmarks within the tangles, networks, and knots of Gadda’s Pasticciaccio by Adria Bernardi
Bordighera Press, April 2026
An extended hybrid essay, The Ambiguity of the Hypotheses is part personal essay, part travel essay, part family and cultural history, part literary analysis, and part philological obsession, which emerged from a reconsideration of Carlo Emilia Gadda’s Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, a masterpiece of 20th century Italian literature. A great experimental novel and influencer of the crime genre, Gadda’s Pasticciaccio considers fascism and the language of fascism. The essay is part of the Robert Viscusi Essay Series.
“It’s a tangle. It is a big tangle of a novel. A series of knots within knots within knots.” — from The Ambiguity of the Hypotheses
