Languages of war: how Italian combat officers wrote about the Great War, 1915-1918. A Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2020 Nella Porqueddu Trinity College Dublin Appendix Table of contents ‘Writing Officers'................................................................................................................ 4 Letter collections.................................................................................................................. 4 Leonardo Cambini................................................................................................................ 4 Angelo Campodonico........................................................................................................... 7 Filippo Guerrieri................................................................................................................... 9 Franco Michelini Tocci........................................................................................................ 11 Enzo Valentini..................................................................................................................... 13 Augusto Vivanti.................................................................................................................. 16 Giuseppe Zanivolti.............................................................................................................. 18 Notebooks.......................................................................................................................... 19 Pasquale Gagliani............................................................................................................... 19 Sebastiano Spina................................................................................................................ 21 Antonio Vitelli..................................................................................................................... 23 ‘Officers Writers’ or ‘Writers in Uniform’..................................................................... 26 Carlo Emilio Gadda............................................................................................................. 26 Piero Jahier......................................................................................................................... 29 Emilio Lussu........................................................................................................................ 31 Paolo Monelli..................................................................................................................... 32 Gianni Stuparich................................................................................................................. 33 2 Farmer soldier Giuseppe Manetti...................................................................................... 35 Oral Sources: Zucca Family................................................................................................. 37 Language and its legacies................................................................................................ 38 Alfredo Panzini................................................................................................................... 38 Risorgimento through nicknames........................................................................... 44 Giusti, Cima, Vivanti........................................................................................................... 45 War songs......................................................................................................................... 46 Going back to war: The leave of Piero........................................................................... 49 Images.............................................................................................................................. 53 Military identity and self-projection in WWI...................................................................... 54 Reinventing war................................................................................................................. 59 Drawings............................................................................................................................. 61 Family communication in war............................................................................................ 63 Class ’99.............................................................................................................................. 66 Remobilization and demonization of the enemy in 1917.................................................. 68 The flood............................................................................................................................ 74 Translated Quotes......................................................................................................... 76 3 'Writing Officers' Letter collections Leonardo Cambini The edition consulted is that published in 1941. There were two other editions: the first published in 1918 (only 400 copies) by Cambini's friends (Pisa: Mariotti 1918). The second, with an identical title (Firenze: Bemporad 1920) featured an appendix. The third edition (Firenze: Le Monnier, 1941) consulted here is based on the second edition but has an additional letter (sent on 20 December to Alberto Cian).1 From the letter sent on 26 August 1915 to Prof. Vittorio Cian it is clear that Cambini envisages a future publication, even though the tone with which he refers to it is ironic.2 The third edition saw the light in a clearly fascist atmosphere, as witnessed by the paratextual elements that declare that the collection is proposed as inspirational reading, defined 'bella e salutare/ beautiful and healthy' for Italian people. This edition transcends the boundaries of commemoration of previous publications and has to be viewed rather as a socio-cultural and political choice realized by a publisher, Le 1 Vittorio Cian and Plinio Carli, 'Preface' Leonardo Cambini, Epistolario di Guerra (1915-1918), Vittorio Cian and Plinio Carli eds., (Firenze: Le Monnier, 1941) pp. v-xxiii here p. vi. 2 Leonardo Cambini, Epistolario, p. 16. 4 Monnier which, along with other publishing houses, was influenced by the criteria defined by the regime in the person of Giovanni Gentile.3 Cambini was born in Livorno in 1882 from a modest family, all of whose five children became combatants. This information was underlined in the introduction to the 1941 edition as it was deemed as the perfect example of a large family committed to the sacred national cause. Leonardo Cambini is represented as a teacher who joined the war as a volunteer, leaving behind his private life for the higher national cause.4 His brother, Raffaello, died on 30 June 1915, and in the summer of the same year he was accepted as a reserve second lieutenant and started training with the Battalion Livorno. Nominated director of the Scuola Normale in Nuoro, he managed to remain at war.5 This is interpreted by his friends, writing from a nationalist perspective and for a fascist audience, as an example of the pure spirit of sacrifice for the nation whereas, in this thesis, it is interpreted as an attempt to hide at war. There, due to the exceptional nature of events, he has less time to feel the desperation of the loss of his brother. War, as argued in the first chapter of this thesis, is also a way of mourning, and a way to even avenge his brother's death. On 14 May 1917, Cambini left the reserve unit (that he refers to with a popular disparaging nickname 'la Terribile'/'the Awful', promoted lieutenant, and was assigned to the 129th Perugia Brigade in the area of Carso. On 6 June 1917 he was wounded. Of interest is also the fact that what drove him from the safer reserve unit life to the Carso is more than the pure will to fight, the will to visit his brother's grave in Pieris. Sent to the new position at Asiago, 3'Laura Antonietti, 'Editori durante il Fascismo' av. at <http://www.apice.unimi.it/mostre/decennale/percorso_editoria.html>. 4 Vittorio Cian and Plinio Carli, Ibid., (pp. v-xxii) here p. x. 5 Ibid. p. xi. 5 Melette di Gallio, he was wounded again on 6 November 1917.6 Cambini died on 12 January 1918. Even here the fascist rhetoric (all voted to the celebration of masculinity) describes his death as a positive event that spared him and his loved ones the grief of a destroyed youth in which vigour was turned into disability.7 The collection itself is presented as a clear sign of heroism, for the 'Italia nuova' meant as fascist Italy. The references to fascism are unsurprising given the commitment of Vittorio Cian to the regime.8 Cian and Carli's attempt to recompose the tone of a selection of letters by Cambini into something which could be accepted in toto by a fascist and catholic Italy, which signed the Patti Lateranensi (1929), would certainly deserve further attention. Relevant is their attempt to suggest that the reader plunge himself into the atmosphere of war which was significantly different from that experienced in 1941. This warning, which would be wise and appreciable, however, aims to downplay the sense of frustration. Moreover, it mitigates the anticlericalism emerging in some letters and recomposes it as pertaining to the nationalism of Mazzinian origins, in which anticlericalism could be seen as a legacy of the Risorgimento. The text also presents an explicit reference to Mussolini, called Duce, who is presented here as the only person who was able to resolve the contrast between the state and the church. While the paratextual