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152 The Translator’s Invisibilitysociety, the scaffolding of political and subjective economy, thepillars of society” (Cixous 1974:389).Tarchetti’s thinking on the relations between fictional discourse andideology can be glimpsed in an essay from the very start of his career,“Idee minime sul romanzo” (“Minimum Ideas on the Novel”),published in the periodical Rivista minima on 31 October 1865. Thisearly statement shows him slipping uneasily between variouspositions, advocating different kinds of fictional discourse, assumingdifferent concepts of subjectivity, imagining different forms of socialorganization. He initially asserts a realist view of the novel, likening itto history:Dalle prime confidenze, dalle prime rivelazioni che gli uominifecero agli uomini, dal primo affetto, dal primo dolore, dalla primasperanza, nacque il romanzo che è la storia del cuore umano e dellafamiglia, come la storia propriamente detta è il romanzo dellasocietà e della vita pubblica.From the first confidences, from the first revelations men make tomen, from the first emotion, the first pain, the first hope, is born thenovel, which is the history of the human heart and the family, justas history is properly called the novel of society and public life.(Tarchetti 1967, II:523)But then Tarchetti proceeds to argue for the priority of fictional overhistorical representation by putting the truth-effect of realism intoquestion, characterizing the novel as an imaginary resolution to socialcontradictions, a genre that fictively compensates for the “terribileodissea di delitti” (“terrible odyssey of crimes”) in history and makespossible a renewal of social life:ebbi tra le mani un romanzo, e per poco io fui tentato diriconciliarmi [agli uomini]; non dirò quanto mi apparissero diversida quelli conosciuti nelle storie, non accennerò a quel mondomeraviglioso che mi si aperse allo sguardo: nel romanzo conobbil’uomo libero, nella storia aveva conosciuto l’uomo sottopostoall’uomo.I held a novel in my hands, and in a little while I was temptedto reconcile myself [to men]; I shall not say how different theyappeared to me from those I encountered in histories, I shallnot note the marvelous world that opened to me at a glance: in