Chapter Il capitolo 6 di Fiori italiani: compagni contro-figure, un maestro «adulto» e «metropolitano»

Abstract

The essay analyses the sixth chapter of Fiori italiani by Luigi Meneghello. It highlights its composite and pluritonal nature, more pronounced than in the other chapters of the book, and focuses on three fascist characters. Cesare Bolognesi and Enzo Pezzato are two of the protagonist S.’s contemporaries, representing fates to which S. could also have been subjected (death in the war, joining the Italian Social Republic after 8 September 1943). Delineated with painful pathos, Carlo Barbieri (a figure little appreciated by critics), is a young man a few years older than the other two, the editor of the newspaper where S. will carry out a period of apprenticeship. This will have a significant formative function for the protagonist on a human and professional level and in the unmasking of fascism.