Last night’s presentation of the novel THE YEARS OF DISOBEDIENCE by Giulio Di Luzio in the historical setting of the Castello Svevo Angioino of Bisceglie was of great emotional inspiration. A Bildungsroman that explores the political season of the Eighties, in which the story is set, where the Author reconstructs the choice of the protagonist, Roberto, to avoid military service to become a conscientious objector, thus retracing years in which truly different young communist militants chose to engage in difficult neighborhoods of Bisceglie, thus escaping the militaristic and hierarchical ideology of the naia.
Some protagonists of that season were present and confirmed the effervescence of activism and social commitment that profoundly marked their lives. Of particular interest is the speech by Nicola De Pasquale, who emigrated to the North for work in a period in which the few recommended people could stay at home and the many like him had to pack their bags. A journey, he reiterated, which is part of the best years of my life as a communist and militant of Lotta Continua. Fefe’ Laganara and Tonio Musci were also keen to underline the climate of strong political opposition of that period and the harshness of a confrontation between the party system and the student political movement, which for many was a laboratory of political and civil growth. The solicitations that Prof. Conto’ addressed to the Author regarding the autobiographical thread, which leads a part of the novel, which he divides into two parts, were provocative.
The first focuses on Roberto’s childhood and his youthful political work. The second sees him already mature and married in the painful elaboration of his vague love as a twenty-year-old, now encysted in his unconscious. From this new condition he observes his youthful years, finding the reasons for a new political protagonism but also the doubts and choices of an unforgettable season.
