Unmitigated Pigs

A note about "Scàmpolo" by Dario Niccodemi

Abstract

The paper examines Scàmpolo, an old text written in 1915 by Dario Niccodemi, which became very popular in Italy, a country of unmitigated fools, but also of unmitigated pigs, according to Roberto Alonge. In fact, the scholar underlines that Scàmpolo is a story of pedophile instincts of three men (forty, fifty and sixty years old), who covet a love affair with a sixteen-year-old girl. But Roberto Alonge points out that Italian critics of the 20th century disguised the troublesome truth of Scàmpolo, interpreting the text as an innocent exaltation of a popular soundness personified by a nice streetwise girl living on the streets of Rome.