Why does Henning Mankell persist in making his beloved inspector, Kurt Wallander, listen to Italian opera? Surpassing the mere characterization of the character by an eccentric biographeme, the taste for opera, in Wallander’s investigations, leads us to another signifier, as lonely as the man himself: the capercaillie so tirelessly painted by the hero’s father. This article proposes to trace both of these motifs, restoring their lost meaning.
CLIL theme: 4027 -- SCIENCES HUMAINES ET SOCIALES, LETTRES -- Lettres et Sciences du langage -- Lettres -- Etudes littéraires générales et thématiques