Los intelectuales italianos y la transiciòn al postfascismo

Italian intellectuals and the transition to post-fascism This article tries to assess the still controversial question concerning the legacy of fascism in Italy. The analysis of post-war debate on the fascist experience among the intellectuals shows the emergence of the theme of Italians’ ‘collective guilt’. The call for a collective examination of conscience was opposed by a trend to forget the consent to fascist regime by the invention of an anti-fascist past. This was not the result – as usually stated – of the Italians’ chameleon-like attitude, but rather the symptom of the un-capability of Italian society, as a whole, to cope with its recent past. The second part of the article focuses on the transition to post-Fascism of the young intellectuals grown up during the fascist regime. All the contemporary observers agreed on the point that the youth had been deeply affected by fascist ideology. In effect, the difficult relationship between the anti-Fascist movement and the younger generation and its rejection of both Fascist and anti-Fascist ideologies and values suggest the permanence of a totalitarian formation among post-war youth: a way to interpret the role and the goals of politics survived to the breakdown of the regime. The burden of fascist education made the integration of young intellectuals into the new democratic system a complex and painful process.