‘Una piccola Italia.’ L’Argentina e il lavoro degli Italiani: breve storia di un tema che partì socialista e arrivò fascista

ABSTRACT This essay analyses the development of a crucial idea: the concept of human work in Italian culture and literature during the final decades of the Nineteen Century and the first four decades of the Twentieth. This time frame, that sees the freshly unified Italy going through crisis but also economic and industrial development, is the period in which Socialism becomes relevant and influences writers and thinkers. And so does the concept of human work that is depicted by many writers dealing with the massive Italian emigration, particularly to Argentina, as a fundamental right of man, a means to advance in life and society. Many works by Edmondo De Amicis, a very popular and loved writer of that time, represent people struggling and succeeding in migrating and creating wealth and comfortable living conditions at home and abroad through a positive work ethic. But with the development of the new century and the increasing prevalence of Nationalism as well as the experience of Colonialism, the idea of migration and working abroad assumes overtones of conquest and domination: in the case of the fascist author Comunardo Braccialarghe, this shift is evident as he celebrates Italian participation in Argentine society as something akin to a Roman conquest and a way to make the Italian Kingdom powerful and dominant beyond its national borders.