Luigi Gussago, Ph.D. (2014), La Trobe University, Melbourne, is a researcher and archive curator at the Italian Australian Institute at that university. He has published articles and book chapters on comparative literature and on individual authors including Peter Carey, Martin Amis and Primo Levi.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: A Journey around the Picaresque NovelChapter 1History through Roguish EyesForewordHistory and picaresque fictionMeaning and significance in historical fictionThe pícaro and historyDual sign irony ‘Historical’ irony Deictic markers of time and spacePolemical use of the allocutive pronoun ‘you’MetonymyMarkers of ‘being’ and ‘seeming’Otto, Baudolino, Niketas: three portraits of the EmperorThe death of two obsessionsChapter 2Alienation and Counter-CultureForewordThe picaresque counter-cultureWhat happens at the boundary?The stranger, der Fremde, l’estraneoMirror symmetry and alienationMythological and metadescriptive consciousnessHomonyms/synonymsCircumlocutionEuphemismSynecdocheActing vs improvisingRhetorical questionsOdilo’s private holocaustChapter 3Women on the Edge: Sexuality and Gender Dissent ForewordPlatonic love and the pícaraCupid, Psyche and curiosityThe constraints of natureProcreationParenthoodThe constraints of societyDemystified womenReligionSentimental lovePrimeval innocenceLiterature, ambition and transcendence in Vendita galline km 2King Lear’s pasteboard crownChapter 4Humour and the Muffled Voice of ReasonForewordVarieties of humour in the picaresqueIronyIrony in the picaresque: Benni and DoyleContradictionSelf-ironySummarySatireSelf-satireParodyThe enlightened grinThe Enlightenment watershedIndividualism, common good and general willExperience and causationThe question of happinessGod’s laughter in SaltatempoConcluding Remarks Bibliography