Brancati/Levi

Question 1

Brancati - importance of virility in Italy

Answer 1

High birth rates were a key aim of the regime, even imposing a ‘bachelor tax’ for unmarried men

Similar values displayed through the Church - sexual potency finds a kind of chastity in what the church considers a sacrament

Alfio Magnano himself values virility - mortified to hear of son’s impotency

Question 2

Brancati - key characters

Answer 2

Antonio, Alfio and Rosaria Magnano

Edoardo cousin, Lorenzo part sec. and Count K

Ermenegildo uncle

Barbara, Giorgio and Agatina Puglisi

Father Rosario

Question 3

Brancati - fascist joining

Answer 3

Joined the fascist part in 1924 at the age of 17

Became ‘Fascist to the roots of his hair’ and moved to Rome to begin a successful career in journalism

Question 4

Brancati - disillusionment

Answer 4

In 1934, when a novel he had written was banned for erotic content - realised the repressive nature of fascism

First public rejection of fascism was in ‘The Lost Years’ in 1937

Question 5

Brancati - after disillusionment

Answer 5

From 1937 was a schoolteacher in Sicily - was there to witness the devastation of the Allied invasion in 1943

Published the book in 1949, can be seen as an act of revenge on a society that treated him badly

Set out to paint a grotesque and comic picture of Italy under fascism

Question 6

Levi dichotomy

Answer 6

Saw the promise in Turin of restoring the economy, punish those responsible for hard times, restore national pride

Observed how it failed to deliver

Question 7

Levi banishment

Answer 7

Beginning of Abyssinian War in 1935, to a small primitive village in Lucania

Gagliano is fictional name for Aliano

Galianello is the smaller village attached to it

Question 8

Levi medical skills

Answer 8

In demand, as both Dr Milillo and Gibilisco are incompetent and resent the peasantry

Question 9

Levi - gentry behaviour

Answer 9

All resent peasants, but perform a sad parody of behaviour in society

Make sure to dress differently and to be seen promenading in the squares

Question 10

Levi - priest

Answer 10

Don Giuseppe Trajella

Abused by the whole village for being drunk always

Pantomime at midnight mass of losing notes and finding letter from only Abyssinian conscript

Question 11

Levi - mayor’s sister

Answer 11

Donna Caterina Magalone

Runs village and is intelligent - married local party leader to hold power

More interested in feud with Gibiliscos than fascist policies

Question 12

Levi - fascist innovations

Answer 12

100% goat tax to stop crops being destroyed removes a vital source of income

Question 13

Levi - mayor

Answer 13

Don Luigi - absurd

Drowns out Christmas Eve midnight mass with fascist songs

Question 14

Levi - peasants’ attitude

Answer 14

Feel alienated as they have never had any part in governance

Sided with the brigands in their conflict against the landed gentry

Now resigned to fatalism - fascism is merely another passing repressive force

Question 15

Levi - failure of Abyssinian campaign

Answer 15

Hardly any volunteers - local leader one of the few, leaving the mayor in command

No rejoicing at success in Abyssinia

Question 16

Levi socialism

Answer 16

Parents were socialists, also Jewish

1929 - founded the anti-fascist ‘Justice and Liberty’

Continued political activism, even arrested after confine in Florence

Question 17

Number in confino

Answer 17

1922-43, 5,000 political prisoners sent away

Average sentence of around 5 years

Question 18

Experience of confino by most

Answer 18

Had to work on pumice quarries on islands like Lipari and Lampedusa

High morality rates and many lost eyesight

Squalid, vermin infested barracks, especially in Favignana

Fitted with manacles

Question 19

Cause of mainland confino

Answer 19

For the least dangerous, became increasingly common from 1935

Originated from shortages in posts, as more sentenced than could be accommodated

Lack of space to move people anywhere other than the south