Abstract

The use of more than one language in a literary text is called literary multilingualism. Ricci's trilogy presents this linguistic phenomenon as the author uses more than one linguistic code in the same text: English, Italian, and dialect. This work describes how code-switching becomes an important device of mimesis, representing not just a switching in language, but also a switch in culture, style, and in voice. This study demonstrates how Ricci exploited his linguistic richness on a literary level creating novels that present the Italian world in a realistic way, but at the same time making use of linguistic varieties as literary device.