Grammar and Historical Materialism: Linguistic Education in Italian Communist Party Schools (1947-1977)

Abstract

The Italian Communist Party organised and founded a well-established system of party schools to train its cadres, with the famous Frattocchie School representing its most important institute. One of the cornerstones of the teaching provided to students from the popular classes (mainly workers and peasants) concerned study methods aimed at reading, understanding and using the concepts of classic Marxist writings. Students at these schools would have to engage in written work to show their understanding of the theories of historical materialism and comprehension of the usefulness of the party school. The subjects taught also included grammar, logic and linguistics, since future cadres would need to be able to write and to speak correctly in public. This article reconstructs the different stages of linguistic teaching for political purposes over a timescale ranging from the post-war period to the mid-1970s, highlighting the persistence and splits in method and content.