“Dal nero fondo della miniera alla luce”. L’antifascismo dantesco di Gadda

In this essay, I examine the three-fold function of Dante’s presence in Carlo Emilio Gadda’s main texts on Fascism: Eros e Priapo, I miti del somaro, Il primo libro delle favole. In Gadda’s enraged representation, the Fascist ventennio is an «abyss», where we can identify the landscapes, crowds, and characters of Dante’s Inferno. Moreover, in his interpretation of Fascism as a historical moment of dominion of Eros upon Logos, the Comedy becomes a positive exemplum of heroic sublimation of Eros. Finally, for a «fury» which aims to restore the light of reason, Dante is the model of a prophetic task, of the literary word’s ethical value.