Contra molinos y maestros: La Difesa di Dulcinea de Gherardo Marone y el quijotismo italiano

This article explores an important episode in the history of Italian quijotismo initiated by the publication in 1919 of Difesa de Dulcinea—by the Neapolitan writer Gherardo Marone—and its confrontational view towards the most influential writer and quijotista of the early 20th century in Italy: Giovanni Papini. By combining creative fiction and literary criticism, personal reflection and political urgency around the figure of Don Quijote (as seen by Miguel de Unamuno in his Vida de don Quijote y Sancho), the Difesa proposes a tenacious examination of the Italian literary field during the “dopoguerra” period. Its unapologetic defense of poetry (Dulcinea) envisions the poet (don Quijote) as a necessary actor in the cultural and socio-political landscape of the nation.