Il volto del nemico. Scrittori e propaganda bellica (1915-1918) nell'Austria di Francesco Giuseppe

This study considers an aspect seemingly ‘hidden’ of the Great War. It is, actually, of complete importance: propaganda. In the light of this phenomenon which, among other things, has been little examined by European critics it is main aim of this work to reconstruct a mentality history with the instruments offered by a multidisciplinary perspective which considers the historical-political aspect, the metalinguistical one and the specifically literary aspect. Situated in an Austrian perspective, but with attention to the German perspective and also to the Italian one, the work is based on the ‘places’ of the dialectical argument. Propaganda in its dimension of a literary genre, has been analyzed in its whole forms: the culte ones (the ‘war writing’ of Rilke, Hofmannsthal, Musil and of a certain journalism) and the popular ones (occasional verses) without neglecting all that production which is direct expression of the Kriegspressequartier i.e. leaflets sent on the front troops, posters and trench papers.