Abstract

The article analyses Gadda’s pamphlet on fascism Eros e Priapo and its «galaxy» of texts, and it demonstrates that they represent a particular case study for the theory of satire. Indeed, these texts condense all the duplicities that have characterised the satirical “non-genreµ since its ancient origins: literalism (direct invective) and layered use of rhetorical figures; irrationality and rationality; identity and distance between satirist and target. Eros e Priapo claims for a rational investigation of fascism, and creates a rhetorically layered satire, while at the same time bursting into the most violent and outspoken curse, somehow repeating the same «echolalia» that it attacks.