Sarcasmi igienici: lo stile divulgativo di Paolo Mantegazza, tra satira e pedagogia

Paolo Mantegazza (1831-1910), a 19th-century physician, physiologist and anthropologist, active in Italy in the aftermath of the national unification, devoted almost all his works to health education, and especially on hygiene seen as a norm of life necessary to promote the strength and development of the nation through the bodily and moral care of its inhabitants. In his works, where persuasion is achieved through a brilliant conversational style, satire is often used in order to make fun of superstition, popular and anti-scientific givens, but also the rhetoric and hypocrisy of bourgeois morals and the self-indulgence of Europeans unable to learn from other civilizations. His satirical devices are straightforward but cleverly built. The strength of his satire resides mainly in its ability to make fun of itself, being consistent with the repeal of any given truth, and the endless search for new perspectives. For this reason, satire constitutes a vital component of its educational attitude and a probable factor behind the success of his works.