"Dead Man’s Bone" is a story told in the first person in which the protagonist, whose name is not stated, decides to take part in a séance. He invokes the spirit of an acquaintance - a university professor - who died not long ago. Suddenly, the professor’s spirit manifests itself in written form and makes a macabre request.
"Dead Man’s Bone" is part of an anthology called “Fantastic Tales” that is divided into two sections: “The Fatalists” and “Thoughts.” “Fantastic Tales,” written between 1867 and 1869, is a good example of the literary rigor and experimentation that characterizes Scapigliati’s work, with its strong vein of social and political denouncement that is joined to his predilection for the horrid and the macabre (a metaphor for corruption).
“Scapigliatura,” the literary and artistic movement named for this writer, has gained new validity today due to its polemical stance against a ruling class of corrupt politicians who no longer cares about upholding ideals of liberty and social equality. The poetry of Tarchetti and Scapigliati gets its vigor from the sub-strata of people at the margins of society: the homeless, “nomads,” foreigners and free thinkers who are often treated as if they were mentally ill.
