The Italian Literature of the Axis War (1944–1974) and the Collective Memories of World War II
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Royal Holloway, University of London School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures Italian Studies The Italian Literature of the Axis War (1944–1974) and the Collective Memories of World War II by Guido Bartolini Supervisor: Prof Giuliana Pieri Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Royal Holloway, July 2018 2 Declaration of Authorship I Guido Bartolini hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: _______________________ 3 Abstract This thesis analyses a selection of texts that are part of the Italian literature of the Axis War, written Between 1945 and 1975, examining the relationship between literary representations and the Italian collective memory discourse of World War Two. This study Builds on a number of theoretical frameworks, combining memory studies, historiography, thematic criticism, and narratology, which are used in order to explore the relations Between literature and memory narratives aBout the past. As a result of this interdisciplinary approach, the analysis centres on those figures of repetition (topoi, themes, masterplots) that characterise, at different levels of complexity, the texts of the corpus and that have been taken as points of connection between literary representations and collective memory narratives. Through the study of the most recurrent tropes across the corpus, this thesis pinpoints the existence of dominant structures that affected the literary representation of the Axis War, which have strong links to the ways in which the Second World War and the Fascist past have been narrativised in postwar Italy. The literature of the Axis War represents the Italians as innocent victims, it aBstains from portraying them as perpetrators of violence, and develops textual strategies that avoid conveying to their readers any sense of guilt, with only a minority of texts resisting this overBearing representation. These aspects are analysed through a series of close readings, which, whilst forming the BackBone of the thesis, intersect with the examination of several theoretical issues, such as collective memory, the literary concepts of themes, motifs, and masterplots, the idea of silence in war writings, and questions of individual and collective guilt. 4 5 Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 1: Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Collective Memory.... 30 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 30 1.1 Mapping the Study of Collective Memory: Collectivist and Collected Approaches ..................................................................................... 33 1.2 The Understanding of Collective Memory in the Present Work ... 35 1.3 The SuBject of Collective Memory .............................................................. 38 1.4 Memory Narratives and Memory Discourse .......................................... 42 1.5 The OBject of the Collective Memory Process ....................................... 46 1.6 Tensions, Negotiations, Changes ................................................................ 50 1.7 Transmitting and Negotiating Memories ................................................ 54 1.8 The Role of Cultural Production .................................................................. 58 1.9 How to Study Literature in Relation to Collective Memory: Reception and Reiterations .......................................................................... 66 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 2: Silence .............................................................................................................. 74 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 74 2.1 The Italian Collective Memories of World War II ................................ 78 2.2 Silence among Cultural Vectors of Memory ........................................... 92 2.3 The Language of Silence ............................................................................... 109 2.4 Silence in the Secondary Corpus ............................................................... 115 2.5 Silence in the Primary Corpus .................................................................... 126 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 135 Chapter 3: Topoi of Innocence ................................................................................... 139 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 139 3.1 Motifs, Themes, Topoi, Types ..................................................................... 140 3.2 The Sagapò Army ............................................................................................. 148 3.3 The Good Italian Soldier ............................................................................... 162 3.4 The Difference Between the Italians and the Germans ................... 174 3.5 The Difference Between the Italians and the Fascists ..................... 188 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 197 6 Chapter 4: Themes of a Lost War .............................................................................. 205 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 205 4.1 Innocence ............................................................................................................ 209 4.2 Defeat .................................................................................................................... 217 4.3 Victimhood ......................................................................................................... 226 4.4 Suffering .............................................................................................................. 236 4.5 Horror ................................................................................................................... 246 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 255 Chapter 5: Dealing with Guilt: Masterplots of Sacrifice and Conversion . 263 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 263 5.1 The Removal of Violence .............................................................................. 265 5.2 Moments of Guilt .............................................................................................. 282 5.3 The Masterplot of Sacrifice .......................................................................... 297 5.4 The Masterplot of Conversion .................................................................... 309 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 321 Epilogue: Exceptions: Facing Guilt, Claiming ResponsiBility ........................ 327 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 327 6.1 Guilt within the Masterplot of Conversion ........................................... 329 6.2 Guilt within the Masterplot of Sacrifice ................................................. 346 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 355 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 359 Appendix 1: The Anthologies of the Italian Resistance ................................... 370 Appendix 2: Postwar Italian Films of the Axis War .......................................... 373 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 375 7 Introduction 'The only chance we might have of climBing a moral rung would Be to recognise the evil in ourselves and to struggle against it'.1 Any study on collective memory deals with something elusive. No matter how well refined and developed the terminology and conceptualisations deployed — and today's scholarship has reached a high level of sophistication — scholars will always Be left with a sense of indeterminacy and approximation generated By the impalpaBility of this object of enquiry. Memories Belong to the personal, intimate, interior lives of individual Beings and they remain largely mysterious and unmasteraBle even to the person who remembers them. If people are not fully able to understand, descriBe, and explain their own memories, there are good reasons to doubt that a third person could study and write about how large groups of people remember the past. Yet groups do negotiate their views on the past collectively, and the ways in which this is done has important implications, since it affects how people interpret their present reality. The construction and negotiation of a collectively held understanding of the