Fantozzi and politics as a farce : a critical perspective

Abstract

As social and political unrest scourged Italy in the 1970s, a young author penned a series of short stories in Italy on l’Europeo (Lancione 2017) oriented around an individual who, in living his ordinary life as a common citizen, experiences a series of misfortunes, some incurred through clumsy behaviour, others imposed by external forces that shape his life. Ugo Fantozzi, is the fictional character imagined by Paolo Villaggio (1932–2017), a writer, who still had to make his foray into Television, but reached a national audience when the publishing house Rizzoli released Fantozzi as a book. Villagio would create two other characters, Professor Kranz and Giandomenico Fracchia. The three characters have a common denominator: timid and gentle individuals, generally submissive but thoughtful, compliant but inquisitive, rarely rebellious but occasionally defiant, unassuming with an inclination to acquiesce and accept the fate that awaits them. [excerpt]