Enigma, suspense, dilemma. Valori e modalità di lettura del giorno della civetta

The paper presents a close reading of The Day of the Owl originating f rom the perspective of semiotic literary theory. It is possible to observe three strategies in the text: enigma, suspense, and dilemma. Whereas the first two cover the unmasking of the truth – following the tradition in crime novels –, the third strategy is particular to the Sciascian contextual crime novel, focused on the semantic instability of values that are the foundation of the social contract. From this starting point, this essay seeks to show that the ‘first novel on Mafia’ is also the first novel that tackles the issue of the Anti-Mafia.