Medialità riflessa: Flaiano e il Tempo di uccidere

The essay revolves around the condition of uncertainty inspiring Flaiano’s novel A Time to Kill (1947) from a narrative, social and communicative perspective. Some evanescent signals feature human living space. Phonographs, films, books, newspapers and radio are experiential translators soothing the nostalgia for a momentarily distant world. Anguishes and doubts afflict the main character while been on the African colonial mission. The contrast between urban space and natural environment - strengthened by the presence of barracks and leper colony - emphasizes the uncertainty of Western men drawn into an abysmal world of pain and death. This is one of the main effects of the consumer society, that appears as the very last resort. Flaiano’s character seems to understand that, paradoxically, men can be alone only within the crowds. This is why the reader has to decode those “signs of civilization” that media can technically reproduce through the semantic of a senseless world.