Forging the New man: World War I Narratives for Children

by Marisa Giorgi

This article examines the role of children’s literature as a tool in Mussolini’s anthropological revolution. A discussion of the regime’s goals to fascistize children’s leisure-time literature and the conciliation between the state and the Catholic Church provides context for an analysis of the conversion scenes from Eros Belloni’s Guerra! Romanzo fascista per i giovani (1933) and Antonio Beltramelli’s La grande diana (1934).