Abstrakt
In this paper, I highlight a specific aspect of Flaiano's humour by focusing on his two early works (La guerra spiegata ai poveri and Tempo di uccidere), one theme (the colonial war) and three procedures (the farcical approach to the language, the characters and the literature). Both texts share the same demystification of belligerent rhetoric, but they differ from each other in their treatment of characters and on the level of metaliterary reflection.
While in the play all the characters are farcical, including those who embody the subalterns' point of view, in the novel the targets of derision are only the Italian colonialists. This way, Flaiano turns upside down cultural stereotypes fostered by fascist satirical magazines, which greatly contributed to spread the racist ideology by portraying the indigenous people as morally and physically inferior.
Furthermore, while in La guerra spiegata ai poveri, Flaiano puts on stage the responsibility of literature as a discourse compromised with power and fiercely derides the intellectuals who supported colonial aggressions against Libya and Ethiopia, in Tempo di uccidere non only does the author parody the European and the Italian colonial novel, but also he strives, by forcing the reader to adopt the lieutenant's perspective, i.e. a hypocritical and unreliable point of view, to suggest another idea of literature, considered in this case as ethical responsibility towards colonised people.