Abstract

This essay reconstructs the history of the second Roman Communist Group in 1940- 42 through a broad spectrum of archival, memorial and printed sources and a review of the pre-existing bibliography. It analyses an emblematic case study of the new anti-fascist generation that took shape in Italy during the second half of the 1930s. Alicata joined the Communist Party after a “long journeyµ through fascism which he undertook as a literary critic and collaborator for “nonconformistµ magazines alongside Girolamo Sotgiu, Carlo Muscetta and Giaime Pintor, ending up at the Einaudi publishing house in 1941-42 and with his collaboration with Luchino Visconti at the dawn of neorealist cinema. Arrested in December 1942 and released after 25 July 1943, he was active in the Roman Resistance and later a key figure in the PCI’s cultural policy