‘We were not good at war’. Opposition to the rhetoric of conflict in Luigi Meneghello

Abstract

The essay focuses on the opposition to the rhetoric of war in Luigi Meneghello’s works from three different points of view. Firstly, the article considers how the rhetoric of fascist regime, learnt by children through songs, books and scholastic indoctrination, is portrayed and demystified at the same time. The second part is centred on the reaction against the rhetoric of partisan warfare, that is told with irony and understatement in I piccoli maestri (The outlaws); finally, Meneghello rejects the narration of Resistance through a new rhetorical style, aiming at a truthful testimony of that period: an anti-heroic purpose that caused at first the misunderstanding of his work.