Reception and elaboration of the contemporary political rhetoric: the case of the last Raboni's poetry

Abstract

In the last phase of his poetry, Giovanni Raboni was concerned with the the issue of rhetoric and the question of the contemporary language of Italian politics. In Ultimi Versi, published posthumously in 2006 by Garzanti, the author makes a satirical use of syntagms, phraseology and verbose expressions typical of Berlusconi's propaganda, introducing these elements in his verses with a denunciation intent.

This peculiar operation can be illustrated by comparing the poems of Ultimi versi and the political compositions of Cadenza d'inganno, another collection published in 1975, as both of them present precise similarities. Contextualising the posthumous collection in Raboni's work makes it possible to analyse this peculiar phenomenon: the poet, by the mean of his poetry, re-uses the language created by Berlusconi's politics. This study is based on the close examination of the autograph manuscripts, the preparatory writings for Ultimi versi, and of the drafts – written in a notebook kept by the private archive “Valduga” in Milan.

These materials prove the way Raboni unveiled this specific political language with a mocking and denunciation intent, and the way the power rhetoric became part of one of the most important poetical works of the 20th century, though in a overturning perspective of estrangement.