Poets vs. Berlusconismo 
The Case of Calpestare l’Oblio and Poesia del Dissenso

This essay will analyze texts from two recent collections of poems, Calpestare l’Oblio (2009) and Poesia del Dissenso (two volumes, 2004 and 2006), in which the attack to the culture of Berlusconismo is part and parcel of the ideological and engaged poetics expressed in these books. It will be argued that Calpestare l’Oblio and Poesia del Dissenso represent the return of many Italian poets to the center of political debate, through an ethical commitment to writing driven by a sense of political necessity. Also, inspired by Romano Luperini’s theories,1 it will be shown how these works embody one of the strongest signs indicating the decline of postmodernist trends and represent the rise of a neo-modernist tendency in Italian poetry.
Berlusconismo, originally defined by historian Marco Revelli in several articles and books, and subsequently elaborated upon by many other intellectuals (e.g., Albertazzi, Giannini, Flores D’Arcais), can be summarized in four distinct but entangled aspects.2 First, it is the “autobiography of a nation”3 that recognizes its defects and shortages but, instead of trying to overcome them, makes them part of an intrinsic, as well as fictitious, “inner nature of the Italians.” The public figure of Silvio Berlusconi, as the leader of Italy, justifies this interpretation by taking on himself the faults and defects of Italian society, making them not only tolerable, but completely legitimate for all Italian citizens.
Second, Berlusconismo believes in the extraordinary power of the television medium, which has been inculcated in Italian culture by the presumption that what is on TV exists, while what is not on TV does not exist. This creates a celebrity culture and a values system which is actually a system of non-values, in which nothing really matters except fame. The best way to empower yourself is to be seen on television. In Berlusconi’s government, it is common practice to turn TV celebrities into not only politicians but even members of parliament.
Berlusconismo is also a business-oriented authoritarianism, meaning that the proponents of this post-ideological and anti-political behavior consider the best way to rule a nation is to treat it as a company. For this reason, the most effective politicians are business people and managers. It follows that the well-being of Italian citizens corresponds to Italy’s gross national product.
Finally, Berlusconismo is a synthesis of neo-McCarthyism and racism. According to Berlusconismo, in fact, all the problems faced by the nation are rooted in two main issues: a corrupt elite of communist judges and politicians, and a large number of uneducated and violent immigrants.
In synthesis, Berlusconi presents himself as the only bulwark capable of defending his fellow citizens from the evil planning to take away their freedom and destroy their long deserved bella vita. There is only one, simple alternative to the negative forces attacking the well-being of Italians: put the control of the country into the capable hands of a businessman. And if, in the process of making Italy the idyllic place we see in commercials on his TV channels, the Prime Minister will incur some wrongdoings, do not worry: nobody is perfect, and anybody can make mistakes, especially Italians.

Calpestare l’Oblio
In November of 2009, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi proposed changing the name of the Festa della Liberazione (Liberation Day) to the Festa della Libertà (Freedom Day). The purpose of this change was, first, to draw a link between this popular celebration and the name of his party, Popolo della Libertà, (The People of Freedom) and, second, to dissolve the connection with the anti-fascist revolt which the celebration commemorates.
Protests mounted everywhere in Italy. Inspired by this public dissent, a dynamic movement of one hundred poets published a manifesto and a collection of poems entitled Calpestare l’Oblio (Treading on Oblivion), with the goal of fighting against both this propagandistic move more specifically as well as the unconstitutional laws pushed by Berlusconi’s government since 1994 more broadly. Calpestare l’Oblio started as a small initiative on the Internet and subsequently, after a large response by journalists and intellectuals, became a book in 2009. One of the main objectives of this initiative was to keep alive the memory of the democratic values that formed the foundation of the Italian Republic. In particular, it celebrated the values of the Resistenza, the movement that, together with the Allied troops, helped free Italy from the Nazi/Fascist occupation during World War II.
Through an analysis of selected texts from this collection, I will show how Berlusconismo is denounced and criticized, forwarding two main points. First, Calpestare l’Oblio represents a return of Italian poets to the center of political debate in Italy. Second, the poets involved claimed that they were forced to raise their voices due to ideological, cultural, and moral decline which is a direct result of the thirty-year influence of Berlusconismo on the defenseless, unprepared, and silent Italian people. The writers do this primarily through a poetic style that is very direct, and for this reason, they sometimes take the risk of transforming poetry into political speech, on the verge of becoming rhetorical. I will present texts that, in my opinion, adopt this direct and clear style without becoming rhetorical, that is, without losing the power and the fascination of poetry.
Giuliano Scabia, Nadia Cavalera, and Giovanni Peli denounce the first and second aspects of Berlusconismo, that is how the “autobiography of a nation” (that tolerates its defects and shortages until they become intrinsic) is infused into Italians through a specific use of the media. Giuliano Scabia calls this aspect of Berlusconismo a “golpe sottile,” a “thin coup,” a powerful and effective metaphor. He writes:

Si aggira nelle menti, nei media,
un golpe sottile, un assopimento
spettacolare indotto da paura
e dissolversi delle visioni.4

Berlusconismo is a “thin coup” because it is not an open and violent aggression to democracy. Its negative influence is almost invisible, a quality that represents its biggest strength. How can someone fight against an injustice that can barely be detected and, when it is, is considered part of citizens’ inner nature, part of who they really are? According to Scabia, this “golpe sottile” works through a peculiar strategy: it quietly puts criticism and opposition to sleep (“assopimento”) through both fear and by dissolving the broad “visioni” typical of modernism. For this reason, we can deduce that Berlusconismo is considered by this poet a negative take on Postmodernism. Berlusconismo found a useful ally in the theories of “soft nihilism” and “pensiero debole,” since from these aspects of Postmodernism it can be wrongly deduced that social activism and political engagement are pointless. These theories implicitly invite citizens to leave the burden of political participation to others, so that politicians can justify the tendency of Italians to be ruled passively. Or simply put: the Italian public must not waste precious time worrying about politics when they could enjoy la bella vita. What a simple and clever way to preach disengagement and lower the level of criticism and resistance! Scabia also points out that the dissolving of dreams and the increasing of fears is a political strategy put into practice through the media, reinforcing the idea that Berlusconismo grows and prospers by manipulating public opinion through a propagandistic use of TV. The “thin coup” sneaks around (“si aggira”) quietly and almost invisibly through TV channels calibrated by Berlusconismo in such a way that citizens will not perceive it as an invasion of their minds (“menti”) and life, but as a thin influence with no important consequences. And, even if there are consequences, they could not undermine the quiet and serenity of our postmodern world.
The monopolization of television spaces and messages was due to both Berlusconi’s control of many TV channels through ownership and direct political influence, as well as his mastery of the languages of this medium. That is, Berlusconi did not simply have control of the TV because he was the owner and an influential politician,5 but because he knew how TV worked, he knew its inner mechanisms, and he knew what people liked to see and hear. This is why TV became more than a place for entertainment and news: it became the “natural habitat”6 for the growth and metastasization of Berlusconi’s political image and agenda. He was able to transform this particular medium into a space where his political, economic, and cultural views became interconnected and indistinguishable. Finally, through the TV, Berlusconi showed Italians that these views were common to the majority of his fellow citizens, who could now recognize themselves in the television messages of their leader while enjoying talk shows, quizzes, or soccer games. This situation is broken down perfectly by Flores D’Arcais:

The destruction of critical independence has come about […] through the creation of a pensée unique that blend conformism and commercial spectacularization, reducing culture to a form of consumption.7

Berlusconi’s pensée unique, amplified and rooted in Italian culture through a masterful control of television, not only created a successful postmodern form of ideology, but also created a following. Berlusconismo raised un popolo that believed unconditionally in the television message, that considered it the vessel of indubitable truth, that started living its own life according to the canons of reality shows and soap operas, and that was seduced by new values and desires.
Similar to Giuliano Scabia, Nadia Cavalera is interested in this relationship between Berlusconismo and his popolo. For example, in the following poem, she denounces the contradiction between Italian citizens criticizing their leader while, at the same time, following him blindly. She writes:

Mentre voi penate
chi v’ha ridotto in quello stato
pur dicendo per logica il contrario
(: la frivola vanità non esita a pascersi di se medesima)
se la spassa e ride
porcheggia a gogò sbeffeggia dalla reggia
E voi lo seguite ancora grezza greggia?
(: e dicendo così si trasse indietro, ma spronò l’altro)8

Even opposition to Berlusconi’s power is not able to put criticism into practice. Instead of taking action and accepting responsibility, those who oppose Berlusconismo tend to step back and push others to do their job: “dicendo così si trasse indietro, ma spronò l’altro,” writes Cavalera. Italians now embody the motto armiamoci e partite (let’s arm ourselves and you all go), originally coined at the end of the nineteenth century by poet Olindo Guerrini, to mock lazy politicians and later used to disparage Mussolini’s war politics. In the era of Berlusconi, citizens are passive, unable or unwilling to be politically engaged, and this is one of the reasons why poets of Calpestare l’Oblio found it necessary to use poetry to inspire a return to social activism. Theirs is a resistance to the logic of Berlusconismo, as well as a move against the widely spread disengagement typical of postmodern Italy.
I would also suggest that in this poem Cavalera adds a touch of irony and contempt with a clever use of punctuation borrowed from the language of emoticons. The use of open parentheses followed by a colon, representing a smiling face, can be interpreted as little smirks of derision for those who still will not react under the constraints and abuses of Berlusconi’s regime. They could also refer to Berlusconi’s trademark smile, reminiscent of the grin left hanging around by the Cheshire Cat in Wonderland. According to Berlusconismo, Italy is a wonderland as well, a fairy tale kingdom ruled by a prince charming who fights evil to keep everybody safe. His beautifully depicted and constantly televised smile is always there to reassure us that, as long as he is in power, we must not worry; most importantly, there is no reason for citizens to engage in political activities. Therefore, Silvio Berlusconi becomes, at the same time, the representation and the agent of a renewed national identity9 that praises narcissism, egotism, and indolence. All features of this identity emerge from the carefully built image of Berlusconi’s face:

Il suo volto non comanda e non spaventa, non scruta e non offre protezione, ma si insinua con discrezione e invita a imitarlo facendo, come lui, i propri comodi.10

In another poem that addresses the autobiography of a nation, Giovanni Peli underlines that Berlusconismo showed Italians their own vices, justifying them as an inner trait of italianità. His fellow citizens did not have anything to be ashamed of, and actually, they should be proud of their limits since these limits made them more similar to their leader, and thus, more “Italian.” Italians must understand how to be fulfilled by their own shortcomings. According to Peli, this aspect of Berlusconismo has now reached a limit, and it is time to counter it with a new act of public resistance. He writes:

L’Italia fascista nelle ossa
ha allestito questa bella tavolata
per l’Homo viagrans, difensore dell’avidità
e di tutti gli amici degli amici.

Amico che temi i rumeni, credi che ti abbiano invitato
ma sei disorientato dai mali minori:
l’Homo viagrans è più sporco della feccia
ha mostrato agli italiani i loro stessi vizi per anni e anni

ed ognuno si appagava soltanto della propria pochezza.
Ma esistono ancora in Italia donne e uomini
esercitati a distinguere il falso dal vero
che sanno dare un limite a chi vuole abbruttire la realtà.11

Peli denounces the fascist origins of Berlusconismo, a heritage that emerges from four main roots: the myth of masculinity and traditional gender roles (“l’Homo viagrans”), the power system based on favoritism and nepotism (“gli amici degli amici”), an inculcated xenophobia (“temi i rumeni”), and media propaganda aimed at distracting people from the real problems of the country (“disorientate dai mali minori”). Peli describes here how Berlusconismo and Fascism are directly connected,12 but also that despite this situation, some Italians are still able to recognize the lies on which the regime prospers. The Italians described by Peli are not subject to Berlusconi’s power, they are not passive receivers of his propaganda, and most of all, they can tell that Berlusconismo is trying to put into practice a project of rehabilitating Fascism: these Italians can still “distinguere il falso dal vero.”
In order to avoid opposition, Berlusconismo constantly tries to censor any reference to its fascist heritage. Unfortunately, pushed by the new-fascist groups present inside his political coalition (e.g., La Destra and Azione Sociale), actually proud of their fascist past, Berlusconi had to attempt to historically rehabilitate Fascism and then censor the strong anti-fascist message present in the Italian Constitution itself. Because of this, one of the main objectives of Calpestare l’Oblio is to keep the memory of the anti-fascist movement alive and underline how anti-Fascism itself is still alive through the Constitution. Many poems of the collection are written with this purpose, and three of them directly criticize the attempt to change the name of Festa della Liberazione to Festa della Libertà as an act of censorship of anti-fascist tradition and as a collective memory obliteration of the crimes of the Ventennio. Maurizio Cucchi, Giovanni Nadiani, and Francesco De Girolamo13 denounce this act as a revisionist move, an attempt to diminish the importance of the Resistenza in the liberation of Italy from the nazi-fascist occupation, the former two being analyzed here.
The poet Maurizio Cucchi writes:

Nella piatta illusione del tempo,
Nella comunità precaria
Dei morti e dei vivi,
Non si cancella l’offesa, non si modifica
Il senso della storia. Nel presente
Totale la vittima
E l’assassino conservano
Espressioni diverse, facce
Opposte: il nero
Resta nero e la storia
Non lo stinge, non lo sbiadisce.
Mai.14

Cucchi argues that Berlusconismo tries to rewrite history through a hypocritical act of compassion. The message is: “in death, there are no differences”; that is, a fascist follower must be considered as much a victim as one who died under his oppression. However, as Cucchi writes, even in death victims and assassins look different (“conservano / espressioni diverse, facce / opposte”). This difference is important because it reminds us of the horrors committed by fascists and stands as proof that the victims had justice. However, if this difference is erased for political interests, then those crimes would be pardoned too easily and the dormant far-right extremism still present in Italy would have easier access to the political arena. Poets of Calpestare l’Oblio do not accept this simplification, this parity between victims and assassins of Fascism, and they consider it impossible to use this logic to justify reconciliation. On this matter, Giovanni Nadiani writes:

“ehi state a sentire un po’
se è vero che il mondo
si dimentica della gente
sarà meglio lasciargli un segno
insegnargli la differenza
tra chi è morto
per far morire la gente
e chi è morto
per far smettere
di far morire la gente…”15

Again, the difference between who died oppressing people and who died saving people must be preserved, and Italians must keep teaching it (“insegnargli la differenza”), reminding current and future generations of it. This has become a profound political act in Berlusconi’s era, since his government has attempted to do the opposite: to erase what history had taught us. Memory is a powerful tool used against this project of Berlusconismo, and remembering the difference between good and evil, truth and lies has become for these poets an extraordinary act of resistance.
In addition to showing how Berlusconismo reinforces being an autobiography of a nation through media propaganda, and how it strengthens its power and control by erasing the memory of the anti-totalitarianism battles fought by our young democracy, poets of Calpestare l’Oblio want to underline how Berlusconismo seeks authority and restraint by inducing fear. It does so especially by threatening that, without Berlusconi’s leadership, Italy would easily become a communist country looted by hordes of immigrants. Berlusconi used fear as a powerful means to convince electors of the necessity of his actions, in a synthesis of neo-McCarthyism and racism. Fear was the best tool to distract Italians from the anti-democratic decisions made by Berlusconi’s government, and to subsequently “acclimatize” them to a country less free but, according to berlusconiani, much more secure. Inside the rhetoric through which this “strategy of fear” was fueled, two elements became the most targeted: communism and immigration, or the “enemy between us” and the “enemy from outside.” The anti-immigration propaganda was borrowed from the Lega Nord, a federalist and regionalist political party that became prominent at a national level during the 1994 general election, when fought in alliance with Berlusconi’s party, Forza Italia. At the beginning, Berlusconi embraced the anti-immigration policy to pander to his allies of Lega Nord, but then realized he could link the problem of immigration to the fear of communist subversive activities. The message of Berlusconismo was that leftist parties were granting immigrants easy access to Italy so that these parties could indoctrinate immigrants to the communist creed, give them the right to vote, and subsequently take the control of Italy away from the “true” Italians. This fear of immigrants was also sustained by suggesting that the presence of foreign people was not making Italy a more cosmopolitan, diverse, and open society, but that the country was being pushed into a process of decay pinned down by the racist blur “africanization:”

Non posso accettare che quando circoliamo per le nostre città ci sembra di essere, e mi è capitato nel centro di Milano, in una città africana e non in una città europea per il numero di stranieri che ci sono. Bisogna continuare con la politica dei respingimenti.16

In Calpestare l’Oblio, this propaganda is countered by realistically describing the suffering of the immigrants, and the tragic end they often face when trying to cross the border into Italy. This is, for example, the main theme of the poem “Il Camion” by Daniele de Angelis:

I corpi sono quattro,
morti disidratati,
distesi fianco a fianco
nel doppio fondo assieme agli altri;
dodici in totale, per quasi un giorno
di tragitto.17

The hyper-realistic style used by De Angelis in this stanza bears the function of transforming poetry into a newscast — into an objective, documentary-style description of the reality misrepresented by the government’s propaganda. On TV channels, immigrants are rarely depicted as victims of Italian immigration policy. They are mainly described as a threat to the Italian labor force, or as thieves and rapists. De Angelis’ poem suggests that in this scenario, in which the Italian public is misinformed by the media, the role of poets must change; De Angelis implies that it is morally unacceptable to retreat into a world of intimate emotions or escape into imaginary realities. The poet must instead work in direct contact with everyday life, with today’s history, and he must be able to do the job that official journalists, subject to political agendas, seem to have forgotten to do. The poet must tell us what Berlusconismo does not want us to know.
Realism as a politically engaged style and a strong connection to recent Italian history also characterizes Francesco Accattoli’s work. In his poem “A questa scuola hanno tolto le finestre,” he speaks directly to the reader, pointing out the similarities between north African immigrants and Italians who left the country or emigrated from the south to the north of Italy years ago:

T’hanno mai spiegato cosa sono gli operai
o gli africani cottimisti? Perché cadano
dai ponteggi come chiodi arrugginiti, come
grandine pesante sulle auto posteggiate?

Che nessuno parli, non s’azzardi voce alcuna
tra gli anziani a raccontare del Ventennio
con i suoi esiliati, o dei meridionali del Dopoguerra,
calciati in culo come si fa con i randagi.

Non era Italia da sapere, sudavano, bestie,
nei vagoni della Milano-Bari.18

Accattoli shows how this similarity between African immigrants and Italian emigrants does not fit with the portrait of Italian society Berlusconismo has attempted to draw, and for this reason, writing about it immediately becomes an act of insubordination. It is also inappropriate to talk about the exile many Italians were subject to during Fascism (“Ventennio”), or of the sad destiny faced by southern emigrants who moved to the north of Italy in search of the prosperous life promised by the economic boom. The reader Accattoli is addressing is clearly a student, educated in a school “without windows” (“hanno tolto le finestre”), that is, the symbol of an institution controlled by propaganda and disconnected from reality, where students are indoctrinated to Berlusconismo and kept ignorant. Here, again, the role of the poet is to educate, to keep people’s minds aware of what it is really happening around them. If for De Angelis it is time for poets to become journalists, Accattoli adds that they must also become teachers.
This is, in synthesis, the most powerful message forwarded by Calpestare l’Oblio: not simply to denounce the limits and wrongdoings of Berlusconismo, but most importantly, to change the role of poets and intellectuals, so that they can call all citizens into action against the menaces of an oppressive, illiberal, and anti-democratic regime.

Poesia del Dissenso

Poesia del Dissenso is comprised of two books published in 2004 and 2006, consisting of works by ten poets who share the same desire for a more engaged artistic production. In a similar vein to the poets of Calpestare l’Oblio, these writers denounce the negative effects of Berlusconismo and of lazy conformism on Italian culture. They hope, as well, for a new role for poetry: poetry able to assume a political role through a process of disagreement with the status quo imposed by the dominant culture. This new poetry must “dissent”; that is, it must fight against the building of an authoritarian democracy in Italy infused by a propaganda of désengagement and permissiveness.
In addition to their focus on political engagement, the poets of Poesia del Dissenso go one step further with a clear declaration of poetics. Despite the influence of the Italian neo avant-garde of the nineties (Gruppo 93 and Terza Ondata), the poets of Poesia del Dissenso provocatively state that the strategies of the avant-garde (i.e., a total preoccupation with linguistic experimentation and a simultaneous desecrating and playful tone) are not suitable for poets who want to effectively engage with the social and political transformation of society. They are, in fact, looking to the poetry of the fifties for inspiration, especially to the group of intellectuals who worked on the journal Officina. Borrowing from this tradition, the poets of Poesia del Dissenso add a linguistic and stylistic experimentalism to the modalities of their engagement. It is a linguistic experimentalism that aims to extract from the poetic word the maximum effect of protest and political disturbance. This defining aspect of Poesia Del Dissenso poetics is highlighted by the poet and editor of the second volume, Erminia Passannanti. In the introduction to the second volume, she writes that their project consists of

ripropositare la formula dell’impegno del secondo dopoguerra, speranza di salvezza che, fondandosi, nel nostro caso, sui dispositivi interni della parola poetica, non declina i suoi doveri dinanzi al reale, come non declina il disagio e l’orrore storico che, inevitabilmente genera dissenso e stimola la ricerca formale dell’artista engagée.19

The importance of this poetic project emerges from the idea that a politically engaged poetry can find effective results by working not only on the message, but also “on the internal mechanism of the poetic word” (“sui dispositivi interni della parola poetica”). Also, it appears that the inquietude caused by the actual political and cultural situation moved these poets to work on formal innovations, so that with this sharpened language they could better tackle the project of an up-to-date poetic hostility against Berlusconismo.
The aspects defined as “autobiography of a nation” and “televisation of reality” are primarily considered by these poets as the source of a dangerous process of conformism. They denounce how their fellow citizens became attuned to and obeyed the mainstream idea of “being Italian” broadcasted and incarnated by Berlusconi. In his poem “Entropia,” Fabio Ciofi describes this conformism as “assuefazione,”20 that is, a mix of “habit” and “addiction.” He implies with this term that Italians find in Berlusconismo the same effects caused by drugs: a false euphoria, a distorted sense of happiness, an unjustified excitement, or a dangerous perception of invincibility. Under the effect of Berlusconismo, people then forget to “essere vigili,” that is, to keep their eyes open so as to be able to recognize and fight the oppressive nature assumed by this pseudo-democratic system. In this political situation, conformism becomes extremely profitable since Berlusconismo has learned how to easily exploit it in order to keep control over the nation. Fabio Ciofi expands on this topic when he writes:

[…] Per una decente continuazione della finzione
serve un inconscio accondiscendente, pronto a riprendere il
vagone,
per coercizione.21

Ciofi describes Berlusconismo as the source of the description of a reality that is purely fictional and deceitful. Italians, by believing and conforming to this fictitious image, and by accepting it as their biography, give Berlusconismo the strength to make this illusion more concrete with the passing of each day. As a consequence, by complying with this illusion, Italians kept Berlusconismo in power and did not resist the process of coercion they have been suffering.
Poet Gianmario Lucini underlines how, by conforming to the directives of Berlusconismo, Italy has become a vulgar and violent country (“sguaiata e violenta”)22 where safety can be reached only by embracing the dull logic of the power that rules the country:

Feci di tutto per essere retto
ma l’amore non basta: ci vuole
l’ottusità mentale del potere
per essere certi della salvezza.23

Berlusconismo has revaluated the hierarchy of values: a citizen is now considered honest when he blindly lets those in power make decisions for him. Obtuse conformism therefore becomes a positive attitude, an unquestionable sign of faith in our rightful leaders. Lucini elaborates on this aspect of Italian society in the poem “Profezia prima,” in which Berlusconi is described as a priest-king whose subjects keep quiet and stay submissive so as not to disturb his uneventful and untroubled reign:

Per il tranquillo sonno del re sacerdote il popolo chiude le palpebre,
si inabissa nei muti cunicoli della deferenza;
per il tranquillo eloquio del re darebbe la vita24

This submissive attitude does not seem, according to Lucini, enforced by those with political power, but actually demanded by the people. They would do anything to maintain the status quo and keep their leader content, since they are assured that his happiness corresponds to theirs. After all, Berlusconismo convinced Italians that they are identical to Berlusconi; he is one of them. Many Italians share this idea, and according to Berlusconi, they are the vast majority; they are identical to him, and their opinions and traits give shape to an ideal “Italian spirit.” This aspect of Berlusconismo is perfectly synthesized by songwriter Gian Piero Alloisio: “I am not afraid of Berlusconi in himself, I am afraid of Berlusconi in me.”25
Erminia Passannanti goes further by claiming that in Italy, the desire of the masses corresponds to “nothing” (“E la volontà stessa del nulla. // È ciò che agognano le masse.”26), so that everything remains unchanged; everything maintains its conformity to the desires of our priest-king. Italian conformism stops them from pursuing a freer existence, encouraging them, instead, to delegate everything to their politicians. Conformism has become a form of disengagement and a sign of social indifference to the issues faced by the country.
Luca Paci describes this attitude ironically, using a naval metaphor: Italy is a ship out of control, whose captain is only attentive to his sexual appetite. He is kept in command only by the devotion of his crew:

le ciurme inespiabili e veniali reggono
i vessilli d’un potere già potuto, impersonale
imperterrito o capitano mio capitano.27

The role adopted by the Italian “crew” in supporting Berlusconismo is one that Paci considers impossible to forgive; for this role, there is no atonement (“inespiabili”). Even though Berlusconi’s power is “già potuto,” (namely, worn out, depleted, and incapable of controlling the country), it keeps coming back; it keeps finding new strength, undismayed (“imperterrito”) because Italians continue to support it despite its incapacity. Their conformism, sometimes taking the form of indifference, perpetuates Berlusconismo.
Together with fear, this indifference was instigated, according to poet Tommaso Lisa, through the constant bewilderment coming from TV broadcasting. Lisa connects the dots and denounces the second aspect of Berlusconismo (the “televisation” of reality), the main tool used to transform Italians into “fish,” into indifferent creatures that swim distracted and paranoid in the “aquarium” of Italian society:

Paure, timori, deliranti attese
di pseudoeventi, tra le altre fobie
dentro ogni piccolo interno borghese
dell’acquario occidentale, geografie

psicotiche del potere sottese
a oscurare imperscrutabili regie
trasmesse in pay-tv, talk-show, riprese
in spot elettorali, demagogie

diffuse ai quattro capi della terra,
l’interferito brusio, nella mente
tenuta in stato perenne di guerra28

The world broadcasted on Berlusconi’s channel is simply an assemblage of pseudo-events aimed to distract viewers or to convince them of an imminent danger (“deliranti attese / di pseudoeventi”). In this way, according to Lisa, citizens’ minds are kept in a state of confusion or neurosis, whereby it is impossible to focus on real concerns, let alone recognize the strategies put into place by political forces to strengthen control over the masses (“imperscrutabili regie / trasmesse in pay-tv”). These stanzas underline how disinformation, if soundly propagated through the media, can not only alter the narrated reality on television, but also the more tangible reality as well. The message becomes the world; the representation becomes the represented; the enactment is now the fact. However, it must be reasserted that the results reached by TV propaganda in Italy are only partially due to Berlusconi’s ability to control the medium; all of this was possible because citizens sat passively in front of their screens, waiting to be educated and entertained, without making any effort to judge independently. Rossano Astremo superbly evokes the figure of the passive Italian citizen who sits motionless in front of the TV screen, hopeless and helpless:

Nel mio inferno
fisso la TV senza pensare,
il vuoto si oscura
nella successione di pixel senza spessore
e il mio corpo si svuota di segni,
si appiattisce come albero
senza nodi e rami,
in questi giorni in cui il potere
ci toglie il fiato, nudo e crudele,
e non ci rimane che ansimare29

Conscious of the effect that TV is not only used by political power as a distraction, but more effectively as an instrument to change the perception of reality, Astremo depicts it as a process of depriving reality from certain foundational meanings. The medium creates a vacuum and a hellish wasteland where the disappearance of purpose leaves the poet exhausted and empty. However, the text concludes with the poet elaborating a strategy to escape this effect of TV propaganda. He suggests that it is time to drag himself away (“scollare”) in search of a place from which he will be able to shout his dissent (“per poter urlare, / per poter bestemmiare, a piena voce,”). It could be argued that the book Poesia del Dissenso is that place.
While these poets confront and condemn this “televisation of reality,” they consider the business-oriented authoritarianism pushed by Berlusconismo as much more dangerous, as it represents a formidable tool able to change the way we interpret the world around us. This business-oriented authoritarianism corresponds to the idea that the best way to rule a nation is by treating it as a company. TV suggested that Berlusconi could make Italians as happy and prosperous as their fictional counterparts appearing in shows and commercials, implying that in order to achieve this goal as a politician, Berlusconi must apply the same strategies and techniques he used to make his business flourish and his image so successful. The politician has to become a manager, and his main responsibility is now making the nation richer. The rules of economy were applied to the core of political praxis. It goes without saying that the happiness and well-being of Italians assumed the form of a calculable factor directly dependent on economic indicators such as inflation, gross national product, and stock market indexes. Politicians and citizens subsequently develop the distorted belief that successfully managing these economic indicators would correspond directly to positive political practices and to an authentic improvement of citizens’ condition of life. In addition, Berlusconismo takes for granted that the Italian state/firm implicitly “belongs” to politicians: when a country is considered similar to a business, then the politicians do not “rule,” neither least of all “serve:” they “own.” Italy was Berlusconi’s property implicitly since, more than the Prime Minister, he is il capo. This tycoon mentality sees citizens as employees, consumers or, in the best scenario, minority shareholders. The Constitution, far from being a plan of development and investment, in the eyes of the president/tycoon begins looking like a limitation or even an obstacle for the important decisions he must quickly make for the wealth of the firm and its shareholders. In this situation, would democracy and the separation of powers still be considered the most convenient form of management for his country? Flores D’Arcais comments on this:

For his tycoon mentality […] such things as the separation of powers, limited government and constitutional constraints are truly incomprehensible and unreasonable. The Berlusconi regime is not fascist; what it is actually creating is a postmodern version of the ancient régime patrimonial state.30

In his poem “Liberalizzazione,” Fabio Ciofi shows that the logic of economic success has become so pervasive that even memories and emotions are subject to the rules of the free capitalistic market. The past can be devalued like the price of a car (“svalutato come una mercedes”31) and, in a country where “time is money” has become a dogma and not just a saying, a quiet, simple life, is considered a sin and a waste.32 Adriano Padua finds this persuasive power of economic welfare even more decisive. In the poem “Amen,” he shows that the historical period of peace we enjoy has been planned and quantified in accordance to the logic of a stock market:

di questa quiete a sangue conquistata
luogo nostro comune e consapevole
motore di strutture distruttive

sistema ne quantificano i morti
come la necessaria e marginale
perdita per il bene dei mercati33

According to Padua, peace requires a prize in blood and victims. In this business-oriented system, the prize is calculable, and the necessity of negative collateral for societal well-being must be considered, just like an economic fluctuation or a market investment.
It has already been underlined how poets of Poesia del Dissenso have denounced conformism as both cause and effect of Berlusconismo, directly linked to its aspect of “autobiography” of an entire country. In addition, these poets interpret both aspects of the power of the television medium and the economic logic of Berlusconismo as means to change citizens’ perception of reality and to push them to accept it.
This is particularly true for another aspect of Berlusconismo as well: racism and intolerance against immigrants. According to these poets, this intolerance is built by depicting and disseminating a fictional reality where immigrants represent the epitome of all the problems faced by Italy. Luca Paci in particular addresses this issue in two of his poems anthologized in Poesia del Dissenso: the already quoted “La nave e il sogno,” and “Cayenne”. I have previously pointed out how, in “La nave e il sogno”, Paci describes Italy as a ship out of control, whose captain is kept in command only by the devotion of his crew. In the last stanza of the poem, this “crew” becomes the focus of the poet, who points out how the crew itself, representing the citizens, is subject to anti-immigration propaganda:

La ragazza dagli occhi grigi accenna un sorriso
e fa ancora le carte come si dice d’una volta
quelle grigie con la scritta Negri
e la ciurma che non afferra sottigliezze
spazzando il mare con grosse scope di saggina
protesta contro l’onda d’immigrazione.34

Using the ironic and caustic connection to a popular brand name of playing cards “Negro” (“Nigger”), and employing again the maritime metaphor, Paci shows how Italian citizens are not able to perceive the illogicality and ridiculousness of their hate for immigrants. The immigration wave (“onda”) bringing workers and tax payers to Italy sustains Italy’s economy and social stability, just as the sea waves of the poem allow the ship/nation to keep moving forward. Paci underlines that diversity and cosmopolitanism should be the future of Italy, but that this future will be decided by the country’s capability of accepting and organizing the flow of immigration. This is the message delivered in the poem by the young woman telling the crew’s future with the deck called “Negri”: these cards that used to tell our future are named with the same term used to disparage the individuals our future will be built upon. However, Paci tells us, Italians are not fit to understand these “subtleties” (“sottigliezze”). According to the reality constructed by Berlusconismo, immigration is not an opportunity but a danger, and Italians have easily learned to agree with this reality, showing a lack of rationality and morality that Paci intends to denounce. The poet hopes that the hardship suffered by immigrants should at least move the conscience of his fellow citizens; instead, he does not perceive any compassion or outrage emerging, not even in front of the death of a child who tries to enter the borders. He writes in the poem “Cayenne:”

L’extra – extra – extra
Comunitario bambino ladro
Sozzo venuto dalla schiuma del barcone

Timoniere Palinuro lasciato cadere
Dallo scafista fascista dove l’aria puzza ma
Dove la forza incendiaria del ragazzo dove il
Sangue langue la ragione, dove?35

Present in these two stanzas, and through the entire poem, Paci asks himself, again and again, where is the shock and the dissent that such a death should provoke? The answer is: nowhere. This happens because the young immigrant is extremely distant from us, three times alien (“extra – extra – extra”): he is alien because he is a thief (“ladro”), because he is dirty (“sozzo”), and because his death is part of the game played by our society, a human sacrifice (“Palinuro”) we are getting used to. This is the reality Berlusconismo describes; this is the reality Italians accept. Poets of Poesia del Dissenso raised their voices to express their refusal of this political and social situation, and to show their readers that they can do the same if they are able to shrug off their conformism and recognize what Berlusconismo hides from them.

Conclusion

In his book La Fine del Postmoderno, Romano Luperini argued that Italian literature was finally in the process of overcoming the influence of postmodern ideology (soft nihilism, weak thought, crisis of grand récits, end of historical contradictions) and entering a neo-modern phase characterized by the return to a politically and socially engaged writing. As can be seen from the poetry in Calpestare l’Oblio and Poesia del Dissenso, Luperini’s theory seems to be correct; poets have been pointing out the danger of an intimist and disengaged approach to poetry,36 and through their works, they seem to be encouraging and embracing a renovated role of the poet in Italian society. This aspect is present in many poems, but it most clearly emerges in Angelo Ferrante’s “Il risveglio:”

Sveglia, allora, poeti. Lungo è stato
il sonno che ha sepolto nell’oblio
ciò che abbiamo pensato e cancellato.
È tempo di cantare. Nell’urlo
scomposto e sconcio di questa babele
che ci sovrasta, è tempo, ormai, di uscire
allo scoperto.37

In order to “uscire allo scoperto” and make themselves heard, Italian poets needed a strong antagonist, that threat to democracy and freedom that postmodern theories declared extinct, or that had been made, so far, invisible. The antagonist against whom poetry could raise its voice appeared in all its dangerousness by winning the Italian election in 1994 and by starting a cultural revolution defined as Berlusconismo.
As Fabio Ciofi writes, while Berlusconismo was endangering Italian democracy, the moment arrived for poets to get together and fight for political and social renovation: “è il momento, / lo sento, d’imbracciare l’agone”.38 Gianmario Lucini echoes Ciofi and explains that it is mandatory for poets to loudly announce the arrival of a different future by “slamming windows and doors” (“sbattere di ante e portoni”) in the house of political power.39 What is at stake is the survival of the most basic aspects of democracy and freedom that can be preserved only by designing an alternative society to the one envisioned by Berlusconismo; as Tommaso Lisa suggests, it is our responsibility to think to “un altro / mondo possibile, / prima dell’estinzione.”40 Poets must recognize the centrality and importance of their role in this process. First, they must keep alive the memory of anti-fascism and all other movements that kept Italian democracy safe from illiberal and despotic political forces. Second, poets must become educators and teach to the generations born under Berlusconismo the positive values that this culture tried to suffocate. On this matter, according to Roberto Bacchetta, poetry is a “testimony” and a “record” of the costant fighting for freedom and for an equalitarian society (“ascolta la minaccia, il dettato, / la sentenza e può / solo se ha parlato, / opporsi, tenere alta, / dove langui, // questa testimonianza”41), while for Gianmario Lucini, poets’ duty is to leave a trace that would help us recognize the signs of an emerging oppressive regime, so it can be more effectively fought (“lascia / voce che narri il mito degli ultimi / nel futuro il passato / di questa festa impudente.”42). Marco Giovanale is perhaps the one who most strongly encourages poets to embrace the role of educator, whose duty is to show to the unaware Italian citizens the dangerous propaganda built by Berlusconismo:

[…] dobbiamo pensare a quelli che non sanno leggere. si deve sfasciare lo spettacolo. tutto lo spettacolo è riportato e ripetuto come spettacolo dello spettacolo. va interrotto. devi interromperlo.43

These poets do not believe that, in order to oppose the crisis, it is sufficient to represent it through language (as done by the neo-avant-garde). Poetry must, instead, get in contact with the crisis; poetry must enter, analyze, and attack the crisis, and subsequently design and teach the project for an improved society. In Tommaso Lisa’s words, poetry must help re-design mankind and his dreams: “è l’uomo, il suo sogno, / la sua costituzione, / ad avere bisogno, / di riprogettazione.”44 In addition, poetry has the chance to become a force able to breach into Berlusconismo and fill with its renovated language the emptiness left behind by this depleted culture (“spezzare / l’automatismo che riforma il vuoto / e in segno ignoto incidere di nuovo / l’inalfabeto a forma di poesia.”45).
For these reasons, poetry could not keep quiet in front of the authoritarian and unconstitutional drift of Berlusconismo. Calpestare l’Oblio and Poesia del Dissenso design and inspire the project of a more liberal, more open, and more democratic Italy, but most of all, they assume the role of a force of guidance and resistance against the blueprint of a conformed, disengaged and quiet citizen drawn by Berlusconismo. As Massimo Palme beautifully puts it, now, in Italy, there is something that will indefinitely resist this and any other authoritarian force:

la nebbia qui però non arriva
è come se qualcosa di infinito resistesse46

Matteo Gilebbi
Duke University

1 Luperini, 2005.
2 While positive interpretations of Berlusconismo exist, as proffered by Silvio Berlusconi himself and theorized by Vittorio Feltri and Renato Brunetta in the book Il Berlusconismo: L’Identità e il Futuro, after a close reading of these poems, it will be clear that these positive interpretations are rejected in toto by the poets contributing to these volumes.
3 “Mi trovo spesso a domandarmi se il berlusconismo non sia una sorta di autobiografia di una nazione, dell’Italia di oggi.” Bobbio, 2004: 16.
4 “Golpe sottile.” Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 88.
5 In the late 1970s, Berlusconi started Mediaset, which became the largest private media company in Italy, and for the past thirty years he has controlled the three major commercial television channels. Also, as Prime Minister, Berlusconi oversaw the broadcasting of the three RAI public television channels, during which time he was in control of 90% of Italian TV media. (Carroll, Rory. “Berlusconi pushes for control of 90% of Italian TV.” The Guardian, Monday 18 February 2002).
6 Gibelli, 2010: 73.
7 Flores D’Arcais, 2001: 127.
8 “Mentre voi penate.” Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 33.
9 Giannini, 2008: 13.
10 Gibelli, 2010: 41.
11 “L’Italia fascista nelle ossa.” Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 78.
12 The book Lo Statista by Massimo Giannini contains one of the most complete analyses of the relationship between Berlusconismo and Fascism.
13 “Riconciliazione.” Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 39.
14 “Nella piatta illusione del tempo.” Ibid.: 36.
15 “Ancora d’Aprile.” Ibid.: 70
16 Corriere della Sera, June 5, 2009. In Stella and Rizzo, 2001: 14.
17 Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 38.
18 Ibid.: 8.
19 Passannanti, 2006: 7.
20 Astremo, Rossano, et al., 2004: 31.
21 “Vagoni.” Ibid.: 43.
22 “Lettera a un giovane poeta.” Ibid.: 47.
23 Ivi.
24 Ibid.: 53.
25 Quoted by Giorgio Gaber in: Lerner, Gad, and Giorgio Gaber. “Canto i Talenti del ’68, Perdenti Come Me,” Corriere della Sera, April 6, 2001.
26 “Desiderio delle masse.” Astremo, Rossano, et al., 2004: 67.
27 “La nave e il sogno.” Passannanti, 2006: 31.
28 “Paure, timori, deliranti attese.” Ibid.: 16.
29 “Nel mio inferno.” Astremo, Rossano, et al., 2004: 12.
30 Flores D’Arcais, 2001: 131.
31 Astremo, Rossano, et al., 2004: 37.
32 Ivi.
33 Passannanti, 2006: 52.
34 Ibid.: 32.
35 Ibid.: 35.
36 “In tempi di ottenebramento organizzato / Voi parlate del fascino della nebbia.” Andrea Inglese, “Ad alcuni poeti & affini nell’Italia dei malori.” Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 62
37 Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 54.
38 Astremo, Rossano, et al., 2004: 32.
39 Ibid.: 53.
40 “[tristici tropi].” Passannanti, 2006: 23.
41 “Guerra civile.” Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 18.
42 “Lettera a un giovane poeta.” Astremo, Rossano, et al., 2004: 47.
43 “Intervista di una sola voce.” Nota and Orecchini, 2010: 61.
44 “[tristici tropi].” Passannanti, 2006: 23.
45 Adriano Padua, “Manuale distruzione.” Ibid.: 53.
46 Ibid.: 64.

Works Cited 
Astremo, Rossano, et al. Poesia del Dissenso. Poesia Italiana Contemporanea. Leicester: Troubadour , 2004.
Bobbio, Norberto. Contro i Nuovi Dispotismi. Scritti sul Berlusconismo. Bari: Dedalo, 2004.
Flores D’Arcais, Paolo. “Anatomy of Berlusconismo.” New Left Review, n. 68 (2011): 121-140.
Giannini, Massimo. Lo Statista. Il Ventennio Berlusconiano tra Fascismo e Populismo. Milano: Baldini-Castoldi-Dalai, 2008.
Gibelli, Antonio. Berlusconi Passato alla Storia. L’Italia nell’Era della Democrazia Autoritaria. Roma: Donzelli, 2010.
Luperini, Romano. La Fine del Postmoderno. Napoli: Guida, 2005.
Nota, Davide and Fabio Orecchini. Calpestare l’Oblio. Cento Poeti Italiani Contro la Minaccia Anticostituzionale, per la Resistenza della Memoria Repubblicana. Ancona: Cattedrale, 2010.
Passannanti, Erminia (edited by). Poesia del Dissenso. Poesia Italiana Contemporanea. II. Novi Ligure: Joker, 2006.
Stella, Gian Antonio, and Sergio Rizzo. Così Parlò il Cavaliere. Nuovo Dizionario del Berlusconismo Spinto. Milano: Rizzoli, 2011.