The presence of Italy as a guest country in this edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair has been preceded by an entire national political debate about which authors should attend and which should not. But just as Roberto Saviano, who also attends an event by his publishing house but is not part of the Italian pavilion’s programming, assumes that his attendance is “a form of resistance”, Antonio Scurati denies political activism. “I believe in literature as a form of knowledge, in this case historical knowledge, and in the novel as a democratic form of history,” he says, before an enthusiastic audience, which applauds every time he pauses to breathe and He is eager for details about the long-awaited fourth volume of M.’s epic, ‘The Hour of Destiny’, which Alfaguara will publish in Spain. «I have written more than three thousand pages about Mussolini with the idea of sharing with new generations a large amount of historical documentation and memory in literary form, fictionalized but without inventing anything about facts or characters, and it has had unpredictable success, both among young readers who did not know anything about this, because they had not studied it, and among older readers, who remember, and that is the most important thing for me.” Writer as enemyIn this book, whose plot begins in June 1940 with The murder of Italo Balbo, leader of the Militia, as a dark omen, narrates each of the five fronts to which Italian soldiers were sent “to fight and kill, like invaders.” Mario Roatta, Galeazzo and Edda Ciano, Clara Petacci and Amerigo Dumini, the murderer of Giacomo Matteotti, appear in the story alongside Benito Mussolini. «I have wanted to narrate historical events and these books have dragged me into a political conflict, but I am not a politician or an activist. What happens is that, when the political story conflicts with historical facts, it identifies the writer as the enemy,” he explains. “I am not a dissident, they are the ones who dissent from the facts and the culture,” he responds to his critics. Scurati portrays a generation of Italians obliged to fulfill their duty, the generation of Benito Mussolini, still convinced that He can balance Hitler’s conquering desires in Europe, but is willing to encourage the German. In his recent essay on ‘Fascism and Populism’ (Debate), he notes similarities between that time and today, when in many European countries voters are reorienting towards extremes and populist leaders. He does not want to talk about specific politicians or parties, but he does confess that his political compass is based on a premise: “When I listen to a political speech, and I recommend everyone to do the same, I pay attention to whether it is appealing to my fear.” or to my hope. Related News standard Yes Antonio Scurati: “Mussolini was the inventor of populist leadership” Ángel Gómez Fuentes It is thanks to this essay that Scurati has risen above the historical hand-to-hand combat that the M. saga has entailed and has identified the laws and traps of a fascism and populism that are still present in Europe. “Yes, it’s happening again,” he admits, but assures that he has not lost his “quiet faith in literature.” «I have strived to find a novel formula that would not betray it and the result is what I call a ‘documentary novel’: rigorous adherence to historical facts, no free fictional invention and yet a fictional staging that evokes, involves , is passionate and gives access to knowledge to any reader, regardless of age or life experiences. Bitter truths «I continue to believe in history, understood as a narrative of the past based on certain rules, in the truth of proven and documented facts, in the scientific aspiration for an impartial objectivity, shared by all and precious for the civil coexistence of all with everyone,” he defends, “useful, and perhaps also necessary for the emancipation of the oppressed because being aware of the history of the parents means fighting for the history of the children.” It makes perfect sense to him to chronicle Mussolini’s unfortunate decisions that dragged Italy, a totally unprepared nation with a reluctant people, into the slaughterhouse of World War II on the wrong side of history. «I tell the story from an internal point of view of fascism so that the reader can understand what aberration of worldview led the Italians to fight on five war fronts alongside the Nazi exterminators and lose. They are bitter truths to chew, I know. But I also think it is necessary knowledge,” he says. He insists that “I am not a politician, I am not an activist, I don’t even use social networks, ever. What I am is a writer, a novelist. It is my activity as an intellectual and novelist that has led me to clash with power, nothing more. And he believes that this has happened because there are political forces in Italy and in Europe that have not broken their ties with the populisms of the 20th century: “The replacement of historical consciousness based on proven truths, terrible truths, by a subjective, identity-based memory partisanship is an integral part of their programs.
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