«L’intera massa qualificata»:flaiano e l’Università Dilatata

Abstract

This article focuses on the concept of the “enlarged” University proposed by Ennio Flaiano in some of his journalistic writings describing the contradictions of Italy during the years of the economic boom. Flaiano produces biting criticism of social phenomena that characterised Italy as it strove to establish its identity in the post-war period of reconstruction rendered all the more complicated and ambitious by the advent of mass cinema and television. This contrarian arch-critic of the Italian “Dolce Vita” sarcastically slates both cultural and educational figures in exposing the limits of and the issues to University education in the new inter-relational and productive scenarios of the postmodern era.

Keywords: communication and literature – society of knowledge – higher education – cultural journalism