Funzioni dell’ironia nei «Piccoli maestri»

After a brief introduction concerning the theme of irony in Meneghello’s essay production, this essay focuses on I piccoli maestri. It traces the main functions of irony in the novel: to deflate the rhetoric of deflating rhetoric (the double value of ‘educating diseducation’ and making words and things fight), diluting disillusionment and keeping ‘emotion at bay’.