SOURCE: Clark, Alison. “Negative Insight: A Study of Narrative Perspective in Three Stories by Natalia Ginzburg.” In Altro Polo: A Volume of Italian Studies, edited by Silvio Trambaiolo and Nerida Newbigin, pp. 181-92. Sydney: University of Sydney, 1978.

In the following essay, Clark discusses Ginzburg's use of narrative voice in her stories “La madre,” Valentino, and Sagittario.

Negative insight may well appear to be an uninstructive paradox. The term represents an attempt to encompass the contradictory impressions I receive from the works of Natalia Ginzburg, a writer I greatly admire. With reference to three stories, “La madre” (1948), Valentino (1951), Sagittario (1957), from the collection Cinque romanzi brevi,¹ I shall try to account for the way—within the relatively narrow range of the known (‘quello che si conosce dal di dentro’), the often sterile modes of urban Italian middle class life—Ginzburg is able to convey so strong a sense of compassionate...