Humour and National Identity

Giuseppe Augusto Cesana’s Risorgimento between Memoir Writing and Journalism

Abstract

This article examines the contribution of Giuseppe Augusto Cesana (1821–1903) to Risorgimento-era humorous writing, focusing on the interplay between national identity, political satire and metajournalistic reflection. A pioneering figure in nineteenth-century Italian journalism and founder of several periodicals, Cesana combined patriotic commitment with a sustained critical awareness of the journalistic profession itself. The article first analyses Ricordi d’un giornalista (1890–1892), using Cesana’s late memoirs as a source for reconstructing his involvement in the Risorgimento, his experience of political exile and his gradual professionalisation within the press. Far from adopting the solemn or heroic tone characteristic of much Risorgimento memorial writing, Cesana revisits recent history in a lighter vein, deploying an irony that destabilises heroic postures while preserving civic engagement. The second part of the article turns to Cesana’s contributions to Il Pasquino (1858), showing how humorous discourse functions simultaneously on two levels: as a form of veiled patriotic communication and as metajournalistic critique. Through dialogic strategies, reticence, caricature and zoomorphic metaphors – most notably in the 'Profili all’acquaforte' dedicated to newspapers and journalists – Cesana reflects critically on the press system, its ideological alignments and its social responsibilities. The article argues that such humorous periodicals, though often marginalised in historiography, played a role comparable to that of high-brow cultural journalism in shaping public opinion during the Risorgimento.