Leonardo Sciascia in the pages of di guardia! Quindicinale della Federazione dei Fasci di Combattimento di Caltanissetta

Abstract

In this article I examine, within their historical context, eleven editorial commentaries by Leonardo Sciascia published in 1940–1941 in di guardia!, the bi-weekly publication of the Fasci di Combattimento di Caltanissetta. These opinion pieces deal almost exclusively with foreign policy. Consideration of them within their here and now allows me to compare and contrast the image of the youthful Sciascia that emanates directly from the pages of di guardia! with the myriad autobiographical statements the writer made in hindsight and in support of a public self-image crafted and honed over the four decades following the end of the Second World War. A cornerstone of that image is an antifascist awakening catalyzed by the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Yet Sciascia’s contributions to di guardia!—all perfectly in line with typical Fascist war propaganda—paint the portrait of a young man who is very much in agreement with Mussolini’s foreign policy, suggesting that the writer’s conversion to anti-Fascism took place in the period following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and during the Allied occupation of Sicily. I also cast into relief how Sciascia, as his public self-image evolved, utilized writing strategies—atypical syntactical structures and rhetorical devices such as the pluralis maiestatis—designed to objectify the subjective. In this way he convinces his readers, in a very subtle, almost imperceptible way, to align their perspective of the past with his.