Eyes and Voices of Rome. The Language of the Rural World in Carlo Levi's L'Orologio

The article develops a new reading of the process of self-awareness within the experience of the `Contadini' as depicted by Carlo Levi, from the point of view of their progressive appropriation of speech. Starting from the assumption that Levi's work can be seen as a continuum in which a key place is assigned to the reflection on the role of language, the paper focuses on this theme in the text that seems to mark, from this particular perspective, a symbolic moment of transition and a turning point: L'Orologio.