Imagining the Future with Eyes to the Past. Giovanni Papini and the Catastrophe of Modernity in the Atomic Era

In Italy as well as in Europe, the crisis that followed the Second World War was not only political, social, and economic but also a cultural one. There was a gen-eral belief that the whole Western civilisation was in crisis. This was soon com-pounded by the fear of a further generalised and potentially nuclear war, fuelling a literature made of apocalyptic tones. This essay shows how the work of the writer Giovanni Papini represented one of the possible outcomes of the "crisis culture" which had been developing since the 1930s. He used narrative invention to skilful-ly transpose his well-rooted anti-modernist and anti-bourgeois beliefs into disquiet-ing future scenarios. Sometimes he foresaw real future trends, other times he antic-ipated themes that would later be found in much science-fiction literature. As a Catholic intellectual, moreover, Papini became a reference point for some circles of young Catholics looking for their own spiritual and literary path, that excluded both direct political engagement and the acceptance of the integralist vision domi-nant within the Church.

Keywords: Giovanni Papini, apocalyptic literature, Catholic intellectuals, atomic fear, crisis culture, anti-Americanism

Anna Scarantino, Immaginare il futuro con gli occhi al passato. Giovanni Papini e la catastrofe della modernità nell’era atomica in "MONDO CONTEMPORANEO" 2-3/2022, pp 15-46, DOI: 10.3280/MON2022-002002