Emma Perodi e la Sicilia: dosaggi lessicali e colore locale tra fiabe e leggende

The paper examines language, especially lexical, and stylistic aspects of the short stories by the Tuscan writer Emma Perodi set in Sicily and largely inspired by Giuseppe Pitrè’s collections of folk traditions: "Al tempo dei tempi... Fiabe e leggende del Mare / dei Monti / delle Città di Sicilia" (1909-1910). The aim is to show which expressive-communicative tools the author uses to project a mythical-narrative heritage with a Sicilian background onto a national language and audience horizon. A preliminary classification of the texts by genres is followed by their comprehensive analysis: it highlights and explains, from a functional point of view, the coexistence of highsounding expressions and epithetical formulas; Tuscanisms; colloquial traits; lexical, phraseological and syntactic elements of Southern and Sicilian origin or converging with the regional vocabulary of these areas, which give the tales a certain amount of local colour. Then the paper moves on an examination of the ways in which vernacular sources are extended and reformulated; an overview of descriptive strategies and their aims; an exemplification of fairy-tale stylistic devices. It is shown that Perodi succeeds in combining the original re-proposal in short-story form of a fairy tale heritage of Sicilian origin with the need to target a national audience of children and adults through a politely colloquial language, although refined with rhetorically studied solutions when necessary. Involvement narrative techniques fully include the use of descriptive local colour, which expresses the allure of landscapes and stories of the island on the writer.