Therapeutic Narrations: recounting Fascist Psychological Violence in Alberto Asor Rosa’s L’Alba di un Mondo Nuovo and Esther Tusquets’ Habíamos ganado la guerra

The aim of this study is to ascertain whether writing autobiographical literature may represent an effective therapy to a specific type of violence, namely the subtle psychological violence caused by the imposition of the fascist ideology.The article will focus on two works: L’Alba di un Mondo Nuovo (2005) by the Italian author Alberto Asor Rosa and Habíamos ganado la guerra (2007) by the Spanish author Esther Tusquets. These two works do not deal with what one would expect to find in works about violence and suffering experienced in fascist times in Italy and Spain, namely high- impact descriptions of atrocities and physical violence. On the contrary they present a very low level of physical violence. However, they do provide an accurate description of the psychological violence caused by the imposition of fascist habits and attitudes, which necessarily implied identity erosion and repression.The article will first consider the issue of getting communities to accept an intimate view of the suffering caused by psychological violence. It will then turn its attention to the importance of subjective narration and will finally consider the role that the subjective narration of events acquires both for the writers and the communities receiving their messages.This study is contextualised into the current trends in Spain and Italy that attempt to revisit a difficult chapter of their history, the fascist regimes, and all its painful implications. It will discuss an aspect that has always been considered too subjective and has been poorly analysed but that represents an essential step towards a more comprehensive depiction of violence and suffering in fascist times in Italy and Spain.