La tessera fascista di Salvatore Quasimodo. Nuovi tasselli per la biografia del poeta dall’Archivio centrale dello Stato e dall’Archivio storico del Conservatorio di Milano.

Abstract

The Central Archives of the State in Rome houses a precious document signed by Salvatore Quasimodo in 1945. It is a form that he filled out as part of the purge proceedings which took place after the fall of the Fascist regime. Through an analysis of this document and its attachments (including a typewritten manuscript entitled “Brevi cenni sulla mia vita di ‘uomo di cultura’ durante la dittatura fascista” [Brief notes on my life as a ‘learned man’ during the Fascist dictatorship], which to date has only been published in part) and a reinterpretation of other well-known evidence, this article raises serious questions concerning the poet’s alleged antifascism. Other documents housed at the Historical Archives of the Milan Conservatoire provide further details regarding Quasimodo’s life, including his actual teaching title at the Conservatoire, which in fact was much more modest than he had purported, or his numerous absences, which de facto caused him to interrupt his teaching career long before his official retirement date.