The Reinvention of Ignazio Silone by Elizabeth Leake (review)

Abstract

526 Reviews This means once again that the non-specialist is given only a very general notion of concepts vital to Croce's anti-Fascism, such as 'the ideals ofthe Risorgimento', 'love of the fatherland', 'the Italian people'. Although Rizi criticizes Denis Mack Smith for denigrating Croce's 'false idealization of the Risorgimento' (p. 8), he does not offeran alternative analysis until more than two-thirds ofthe way through, in a brief summary of Croce's History of Europe. Conversely, one of the study's strengths is in illustrating how Croce's political career can provide a context for understanding his seemingly contradictory historical definitions of Fascism. For example, Rizi presents the 'parenthesis' theory primarily as a strategic tool used in dealing with the Allies, and the Antifascist Manifesto as the dying throes of non-interventionist liberalism. As a whole, this biography is a useful reminder that even thinkers of Croce's calibre do not have the benefit of hindsight, and that many intellectuals originally believed Fascism might represent an important element of revitalized Italy after the First World War. Gentile's education reform,carried out with Croce's support, shows how the Fascist government adopted traditional liberal ideas as ahd when it suited them. None the less, Rizi suggests an element of naivety in Croce's initial willingness to believe Mussolini's assurances of good faith. It is interesting to note that Gentile's muddying of philosophical concepts with Fascist rhetoric from 1923 onwards irked Croce more than all the squadristi violence of 1920-22. It took not only the Matteotti murder, but also Mussolini's failure to keep his promises afterwards, forhim to realize that much of Fascism's success relied on violent coercion. Rizi supplies fascinating details on the various subterfuges Croce practised to ensure his books were published uncensored during the Fascist era, details which encapsulate the main features of his anti-Fascist arsenal: international public opinion, an extensive network of influential friends, and privileged financial status. The wealth of material on his active financial and moral support for freedom of speech for all political and cultural shades of opi? nion includes police archive material, the taccuini, and private correspondence with friends and editors. As of 1925 and the beginning of Croce's active anti-Fascism, Rizi observes that the taccuini, previously work-notes, became increasingly personal. However, although he insists on the importance of individual contacts and private actions under a would-be totalitarian regime, he maintains at times an almost overrespectful distance from his subject. For instance, the references to Croce's family life are schematic, merely enough to make it tantalizingly clear that his wife and daughters played an important role in his anti-Fascist activities without giving details. Finally, the biography provides a poignant illustration of how the generation gap influenced European politics before and after the firstWorld War. Croce matured from 1866 to 1916 in an atmosphere of relative peace and progressiveness that nurtured his emotional attachment to the monarchy and to a strong, centralized state. Rizi uses this to explain why he voted confidence in Mussolini's government afterthe Matteotti affair,and to preserve the monarchy in 1946, despite the second intellectual youth that his opposition to Fascism had given him. New College, Oxford Deborah Holmes The Reinvention of Ignazio Silone. By Elizabeth Leake. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2003. viii + 200 pp. ?32. ISBN 0-8020-8767-1. This study of Ignazio Silone's earliest fictional works, Viaggio a Parigi, Fontamara, and Pane e vino, is the firstto adopt wholeheartedly the view that Silone informed on his Communist comrades forthe Fascists throughout the 1920s. Leake's psychoana? lytical reading aims to show how Silone 'reinvented' his supposedly duplicitous past; she presents his writing primarily as a cover-up operation that allowed him both to MLR, 100.2, 2005 527 disguise and to confess his betrayal. Sandwiching her literary analysis between in? troductory and concluding chapters on the informer debate, Leake does not advance any new evidence on the nature or motivation of Silone's contacts with Fascism and no attempt is made to explore the contested earlier phase of his 'Fascist' activities. As Leake herself stresses, she is a...