Don Giovanni in Sicily - Vitaliano Brancati

Don Giovanni is the caricature of the stereotypical forty-year-old Sicilian bachelor who lives in a stifling society, is spoiled by his three sisters and, in spite of his shyness, is affected by the degraded and distorted sexual drive and obsession known as gallismo. He is represented not as the irresistible and attractive lover of the classical Don Juan, but as a puppet who lacks any substance and is psychologically pathetic.-

Brancati provides a satirical insight into the restricted provincial life of Sicilian middle-class society in the thirties, undermining the exaltation of dreams and the rhetoric of life. -Some critics emphasize how Brancatis satire reveals the sterility of Fascism, connected to gallismo in the vain, glorious ostentation shown in smiles, vitality, muscles, youth and sexual power. In addition, Brancati highlights the passive resistance and indifference of the insular Sicilians in opposition to the strong Fascist militancy of the time.-

Nonetheless, the Sicilian writer goes beyond the representation of a regional social environment, and instead depicts in a burlesque and critical manner the existential collective drama of modern alienation, raising several issues related to social behavior and distorted views of sexuality common to modern Western society.