Between private matters and public engagement: Conflicted partisan fighters in the resistance novels of Vittorini and Fenoglio

Daniele Biffanti*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In this article I explore the representation of partisan fighters provided by Elio Vittorini and Beppe Fenoglio in their novels Uomini e no (1945) and Una questione privata (1963), through the lens of Hannah Arendt's reflection on totalitarianism’s exploitation of the weakened boundaries between public and private, and on partisans’ reappropriation of the public realm during the Resistance struggle. I argue that partisan characters Enne 2 and Milton display the psychological burden derived from their choice to engage in the public realm, and from the subsequent necessity to act and use violence in order to pursue the goal of Liberation from totalitarianism. Basing these literary figures on their own engagement in the Resistenza, Vittorini and Fenoglio offer a counterargument to Arendt's claim that the private becomes a sad and opaque dimension for those who reappropriated the public – their paper partisans experience the unbearable weight deriving from public engagement, and struggle with a desire to find refuge, respectively, in their personal and interior dimensions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)882-912
Number of pages31
JournalForum Italicum
Volume57
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2023

Keywords

  • Arendt
  • Fenoglio
  • Italian studies
  • Vittorini
  • resistance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Literature and Literary Theory

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Between private matters and public engagement: Conflicted partisan fighters in the resistance novels of Vittorini and Fenoglio'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this