Abstract

The essay proposes a descriptive and critical introduction to Fausta Cialente "Diary of War", a collection of nine handwritten notebooks composed in Egypt during the Second World War. The diaries witness the militant anti-fascist period, when Cialente becomes collaborator of allied propaganda and protagonist of several initiatives in favour of the Italian community. The aim of articulating private diary as a political instrument, directly functional to her public activities, is a deeply aware formal exercise that forces the author to face her imaginary and to deal with self-conscious organization of memory.