Scrittori in divisa. Commedie, bozzetti militari e racconti distopici (1864-1872)

Abstract

After reading De Amicis’ Bozzetti military, D’Ovidio admitted he was surprised: «parve mirabile che un uffiziale di fanteria trovasse il tempo, tra [...] i picchetti, e la corvée, di scrivere cose sì belle». In fact, between the 1860s and the beginning of the following decade, in a period dramatically marked by the Third War of Independence, not few writers ‘in uniform’ can be found, even if surely less talented than De Amicis. The essay focuses on some significant cases, concentrating in particular on two episodes that generated a considerable clamour, even entering the parliamentary debate: a dystopian tale, Il guardiano di spiaggia, commissioned by the Ministry of Navy, describing the terrible misadventures, both militar and political, of Italy, guilty of not having strengthened its maritime defence, and another tale, this more related to the Army, which at the contrary pictures the same future war as a victory for the nation thanks to the strength of field battling.