The Roman Empire, the most far-flung of the ancient world, was populated by around 80 million people, roughly half of whom spoke Latin: no other antique language was as widespread or important. The language spoken in Rome was the model for the other regions of the Empire and by the time of Julius and Augustus Caesar (60 B.C. - 15 A.D.), through writers like Cicero, Sallust, Virgil and Horace, it had developed fixed rules (of grammar, syntax and meaning) which were held to be perfect. After the fall of the Roman Empire, this "classic" Latin remained a fundamental means of communication between nations and scholars, as well as becoming the language of the Church.
When the Roman Empire fell (476 A.D.), it was replaced by new Roman-Barbarian kingdoms and Classical and spoken Latin were permanently divided. The former remained unchanged, used only in texts or by an educated elite whilst the spoken form was used by millions of people in their daily lives and thus came into contact with the languages of the Germanic invaders and was developed into different tongues. In this way were born the Romance languages. In Italy, the use of Latin as the single language gradually faded to be replaced by numerous dialects: the "vernacular" which varied from region to region.
The vernacular first appears in literature in the poetry of the 13th century with the Sicilian, Tuscan and "Stil novo" poets who employed a refined lexicon. The shift to the use of the vernacular made possible a set of specific rules and forms thereby removed from the vicissitudes of the spoken language. At the same time it became possible to refine linguistic expression by toning down the rougher local dialects. Later, the great Tuscan writers of the 13th and 14th centuries, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, made a fundamental contribution by writing a literary language that would be the model for succeeding centuries.
The linguistic unification of Italy came about gradually through the spread of a language that developed from the Tuscan dialect, more precisely Florentine. It became a superior language, used in politics, administration and inter-regional communications; fields hitherto reserved for Latin which survived, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries, as the language of culture and the Church. After an initial period in which the various dialects vied for supremacy, Florence's prodigious economic growth, social development and commercial and cultural expansion, led to the adoption over the centuries of its dialect as the common Italian tongue.
The Florentine vernacular that was to become the Italian tongue was for a long time used outside Tuscany only as a literary language, encouraged by men of letters such as Pietro Bembo and the Academicians of Crusca, and the majority of people used their regional dialect. Italian also underwent a slow lexical and syntactical improvement, due in part to the principal writers of the 19th century: Foscolo, Leopardi, and above all, Manzoni. Only from the 18th century and particularly after Unification (1861) was a knowledge of Italian established and the time-honored dialect division of the country healed.
The majority of Italians now speak Italian and regional dialects are used less and less. Nonetheless, there are two bilingual regions (Aosta Valley and Trentino Alto Adige) as well as some linguistic minorities. Ladin, one of the dialects derived from Latin, is spoken in the Dolomite valleys and principally, in the Friuli region (around 900,000 inhabitants) where there is a lively use of the regional tongue alongside Italian. In Piedmont, particularly in the provinces of Cuneo and Turin, many people continue to speak Occitan, a Provencal-type dialect similar to that spoken in southern France. Sloven linguistic groups can be found in some valleys in the province of Udine and more so in the provinces of Gorizia and Trieste.
During the late Middle Ages Slavs settled in the Marches, on the Salento peninsula and in Molise where even today there is a minority of Croatian speakers. Other migrations, like that of the Albanians who fled the Turkish invasion of the 15th century, led to the establishment of "Tosca": a variety of Albanian that continues to be the native tongue for many of the inhabitants of Molise and Calabria. There are Greek-speaking groups in the provinces of Lecce (Apulia) and Reggio Calabria which date back to the ancient Greek colonies. Finally, a good half of the population of Alghero in Sardinia speaks Catalan -- a legacy of the Aragonese invasion in 14th century.
There are two bilingual regions in Italy: that is, where the use of Italian is on a par with either French, as in the Aosta Valley, or German, as in Trentino Alto Adige. In the Aosta Valley and in some valleys to the north-west of Turin, the traditional language of the local population is French-Provencal. The special statute of 1948 allowed for the parity of French and Italian in public documents, in schools and in civil life. The German-speaking minority in Italy inhabits a large area of Trentino Alto Adige where both Italian and German are recognized as the official language.
The rise of a literature, both written and spoken, in the vernacular began in the 13th century; a period of great political and civil revival in the Italian cities and a lively renaissance in art and culture after the difficult centuries following barbarian domination. There were a great number of trends in 13th-century literature: religious poetry (which thrived in Umbria partly as a result of the activity of Saint Francis, especially with the work of Jacopone da Todi); poetry made popular by the French jongleurs; the comic-satirical poetry of Cecco Angiolieri; chivalric literature (the chansons de geste derived from the French); didactic and moralistic prose in which Brunetto Latini was prominent, and, the most widespread, love poetry.
The first Italian poetry written with literary pretensions emerged, and flourished in Sicily at the Court of the Emperor Frederick II, starting from around 1220 and inspired by the Provencal love lyrics. The poets of the Sicilian school (Guido delle Colonne, Pier dela Vigna, Cielo Dalcamo) treated their single theme of love according to the courtly model. In this way a poetic tradition was begun in which the vernacular Italian was increasingly cleansed of dialectical excess. Later this trend spread to central Italy, especially Tuscany where the poets (Chiaro Davanzati, Compiuta Donzella) expanded and enriched the Sicilian lyric by confronting moral and political themes which reflected the ideals of Communal life.
The most important literary movement of the latter half of the 13th century was what Dante called the "dolce stil novo". The dominant theme of the poets (Guido Guinizelli, Guido Cavalcanti) was the basic experience of the conscience and the life of the soul. What was new about the style was not simply a more spiritual conception of woman, exalted as an angel of salvation, but a deeper intellectual and philosophical examination of love as the source of moral virtue, and a more refined searching of the psyche.
The 14th century was a period of gradual change in Medieval life and culture which gave rise to a new concept of existence. It also saw a maturing of the literary tradition which was given its greatest expression by the Florentine Dante Alighieri. Dante's work was the origin to the modern Italian literary and linguistic tradition. The early lyrics are collected in the "Vita Nuova", an idealized autobiography in which the poet sings of his love for Beatrice whilst at the same time transcending that love for a higher one: the love of God. In the other works prior to the "Divine Comedy" ("Convivio","De vulgari eloquentia", "De monarchia"), Dante deals with contemporary themes of the spirit, culture, and politics.
Dante's major work, and the greatest in Italian literature is the "Divine Comedy": a complex and highly poetic work treating a vast subject. The content unites the culture and spirit of the Middle Ages and expresses a religious faith in a universe built and run by God's will. Dante's vision is of a journey in the afterlife through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise where he encounters the souls of the great men of the past and discusses with them the most important themes of humanity: philosophy, religion and morality, politics and culture. Dante's voyage, guided by Virgil (human reason), and Beatrice (human reason enlightened by revelation), is also the story of his personal redemption as well as a cry for the salvation of humanity.
Petrarch differed from Dante in that he actively confronted the division between austere Medieval religion and the enjoyment of worldly goods, particularly love and fame. In this he was a precursor of the Humanist thought of the Renaissance with its full evaluation of earthly existence. Petrarch was the author of numerous philosophical, religious and poetic works in Latin, but his major works, "I Trionfi", and "Il Canzoniere", are written in the vernacular. In the latter collection of poems, he examines his soul, analyses his unrequited love for Laura (whoever the lady may have been) and probes his inner - unresolved - crises.
Boccaccio can be ranked alongside Dante and Petrarch as one of the three great Italian literary figures of the 14th century who were also prominent on the European Scene. He can be distinguished from them, however by his greater concentration on earthly themes and subjects and his relative disinterest in moral, religious, theological and political issues. Boccaccio's greatest work is "The Decameron", a collection of 100 tales linked in a narrative framework, where he masterfully portrays different characters and their various passions, thus creating a vivacious image of life in all its many facets.
The prose of the 14th century was characterized by an explosion of religious literature, primarily aimed at the education and religious instruction of the people. The number of sermons, doctrinal treatises, biographies of saints (particularly centered around Saint Francis and Saint Catherine) written at this time are testimony to the degree to which Christianity had become rooted in contemporary conscience and culture. There were also numerous historical works, in both Latin and Italian. These "chronicles" are notable for their liveliness and concrete narration.
The 15th century saw the rise and confirmation of a spiritual and cultural movement characterized by the rediscovery of the Greek and Latin classics, seen not only as the model for artistic perfection but also as a lesson for life. The Italian Humanists believed that the Classical world offered them a view of reality that could serve them in their own lives, one which exalted the dignity and rationality of Man, the glory of his spirit, the beauty of Nature and worldly existence. There were many writers (Pico della Mirandola, Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini and Marsilio Ficinio in Florence, Giovanni Pontano and Jacopo Sannazzaro in Naples) who used themes and forms taken from the past, thereby giving rise to Classicism.
Fourteenth-century lyric poetry was the literary expression of a civilization still in its first flowering. The prevalent themes were a realization of the beauty of the world and an optimistic faith in Man and Nature. A new conception of life was expressed, one which involved a deeply-felt love for earthly reality faintly tinged by that melancholy born of the awareness of the mutability of beauty, youth and life itself. These sentiments are evident in the writings of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Florentine patron and friend of the poets as well as a poet himself.
What emerges from the life and poetry of Politian is a desire and need to escape everyday realities and seek refuge in a fantastical world of ideal beauty and harmony similar to that created by the great poets of the past. As a result, his verses have an elevated literary tone and use forms and images influenced by the Classic writers. In his poetry (the most famous perhaps being the "Stanze per la giostra", dedicated to Giuliano de' Medici) one is aware of the poet's tendency to look idyllically upon himself while at the same time there is evidence of the focus on a new harmony between Man and Nature; the fascination of life and the world as a whole; the cult of beauty and of poetry that were all to characterize the Renaissance.
Alongside the refined Classicizing poetry of Politian and the varied, imaginative works of Lorenzo de' Medici, the 15th century also witnessed a return to 13th century chivalrous poetry, or rather a remodeling of heroic poetry. In "Morgante Maggiore", Luigi Pulci uses the foundation of a chivalrous poem to build a work that was closer to the ridiculing and burlesquing tone popular in Florence since the 13th century. The heroic passions of the warriors, their noble deeds and idealistic love stories which form the basis of the heroic tradition are only an excuse for Pulci to free his imagination and recite the most incredible stories and to describe human beings and their feelings in a vivid and realistic way.
One of the major authors of 15th century Italian chivalric literature, along with Pulci, was Matteo Maria Boiardo, and he too altered the traditional models. In his unfinished "Orlando innamorato", Boiardo, Count of Scandiano, brings the uncurbable force of love to the rigid Carolingian world and uses it as a departure-point for a number of adventure stories. The courtly tradition, as in Pulci's work, is deprived of its original religious, ethical and patriotic content and transformed into an expression of the values and ideals of contemporary society.
Da Vinci (1452-1519) and Alberti (1404-1472) were both thinkers and artists whose sweeping interests embody the spiritual ideals and morals of the century. More than any other, da Vinci represents the ideal Renaissance man, versatile and open to all experience; his genius found expression in painting, sculpture, philosophy, mathematics and the study of the sciences, but he was also important as a writer thanks to his treatise on painting. Leon Battista Alberti was another man of many talents: architect, theorist, mathematician, physicist and scholar, as well as the author of treatises on sculpture and architecture, written in both the vernacular and Latin.
Following the invention of the printing press towards the end of the 15th century by Gutenberg, Aldo Manuzio started up the first commercial Italian printing workshop in Venice. Not limiting himself to reproducing Homer, Virgil, Dante and the Classics, Manuzio forged friendships with the great contemporary writers, from Bembo to Erasmus, thus concentrating his publishing on the best of the culture of the time. Flourishing publishing works grew up in Milan, Florence and Rome, as well as continuing in Venice which had 200 shops capable of producing 1500 titles a year.
The ideals of Humanism culminated in the Renaissance: the most glorious period in Italian art which set the example for the rest of Europe through the work of Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Botticelli, Brunelleschi, Bramante etc., and marked the beginning of modern civilization. Under the patronage of the major personalities of the era, all the arts, from architecture to political thought, blossomed as never before. It was a period characterized by a belief in Man at the centre of the universe, both subject and creator of his destiny, by the ideals of grace, beauty and harmony and by the glorification of individual freedom and the synthesis between Man and Nature.
The poet who best expresses the ideals of the Renaissance is Ludovico Ariosto: his poetic and human vision is characterized by a desire for Man's complete harmony with himself and the world, by a faith in human reason and dignity and by a full involvement in worldly things. Ariosto's major work, "Orlando Furioso", recounts in verse different and fanstastic adventures of Medieval knights and their lady loves, but the traditional chivalric style is just a pretext for an imaginative pageant of duels and battles, incredible journeys, monsters and sorcerers, enchanted castles, friendship and love, betrayal and deceit, narrated at an unflagging pace in a dazzling style that transports the reader to that half-world between dream and reality.
The works of Niccolo' Machiavelli represent the first attempt to express political science as an autonomous branch of learning, distinct from morality and religion. In his major works ("The Prince", "Discourses", "The Art of War"), Machiavelli conceives of history as a human creation, bereft of Providential interference, and focuses on the problem of the State, its efficiency, military organization and laws. He proposes the creation of a new kind of State as well as spelling our for the "new prince" the expedients necessary to defend his power, including actions that may become inevitable even if appearing morally unsound.
Guicciardini's philosophy was based on the same basic principles as Machiavelli's: the individual, with his passions and actions, is the driving force of history. He also believed that political analysis should be free from all moral and religious considerations. Nevertheless, Guicciardini differed from Machiavelli in recognizing the inability of the individual to change the course of events, whereas the latter believed in the State as a rational and human creation possessing its own morality. The faith in an ideal that transcends the interests of the individual is lacking in Guicciardini and renders his work pessimistic and skeptical. This trend, along with an acute sense of history, is evident in his major work, "History of Italy".
The fear of adopting unorthodox positions, the conflict between his own sensitivity and contemporary morality, and a sense of insecurity and solitude combine to make Tasso's works representative of the post-Tridentine period with its realization of Man's ephemerality after the Renaissance belief in his strength. His first important poem was the pastoral drama "Aminta" which proposes a simple happy life dominated by the tender passion of love. However, in his major work, "Gerusalemme liberata", the feudal, courtly world is described through the fantastically dramatic adventures of the characters, and love is treated as the temptation of a purely earthly happiness in conflict with religious spirituality.
There was quite a variety of minor literature in the 16th century. Prose saw the prevalence toward poetics and didactic works (Pietro Bembo, Giovanni dela Casa, Baldassare Castiglione) which proposed a perfect humanity capable of embodying the ideals of the time: grace, harmony and decorum. Other figures to emerge in this period included Giorgio Vasari, author of the first history of Italian art, and Pietro Aretino, who wrote lively plays. In poetry, the tradition of the love poem was continued by Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna and was joined by the satiric-comic poetry of Teofilo Folengo. (See additional entries at "Theatre")
The 17th century, a decisive one in the formation of modern European civilization, saw the crisis of the Renaissance vision of Man at the centre of the universe in untroubled harmony with Nature. God was once again a stern presence. New values and a new equilibrium were sought to replace the lost certainties. In literature, however, this search declined into an exaggerated exuberance of form, as can be seen in the foremost poets of the century -- Giambattista Marino and the Classicists Alessandro Tassoni and Gabriello Chiabrera. The poverty of content and sentiment hid behind stylistic virtuosity and extravagant description.
In contrast to the decline of poetry, in the 17th century there was a wealth of prose. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who founded modern scientific research, based on experiment rather than abstract deduction and the rules set down by past philosophers, earned a place in literature thanks to his uncomplicated style. History also matured, especially through the works of Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623) whose "The History of the Council of Trent" shows a deep understanding of contemporary Italy tinged with criticism. Philosophical writers such as Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) were another highlight in an otherwise unrewarding literary century.
Italian art experienced a revival in the 18th century, particularly in the latter half with the spread of the Enlightenment. The process was begun, however, in 1690 with the founding of the "Arcadia" - a literary academy set up with the aim of replacing the extravagance and artificiality of the 17th century with a more serious and rational poetry expressing true emotions. The major writer was Pietro Metastasio (1698-1792), author of a number of melodramas in which the main characteristic is a dream-like idyllism, expressed in a highly musical language.
The cultural revival of the early 18th century also caused an increase of interest in philosophical and historical research where the most important figure was Giovanni Battista Vico (1668-1744). Vico rejected the prevalent Cartesian rationalism and scientific interest in favour of an investigation of mankind, the progress of human history and psychological development. The historical studies of Lodovico Antonio Muratori (1672-1750), with their critical analysis of Italian civil and literary history, are also worthy of note.
Italian culture and literature experienced a revival in the second half of the 18th century as a result of the spread of the ideals of the Enlightenment. Italian writers felt the need for contact with the rest of European culture and were convinced that this was the only way Italy could play any role in the progress of civilization. The Enlightenment to them meant the search for a literature tied more closely to contemporary issues and directed at a general social improvement. The new ideas spread to Naples and especially Milan where the periodical "Caffè", the Verri brothers and Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) inquired into literary, economic and civil problems with a modern approach.
Giuseppe Parini best embodies the intellectual and spiritual revival that took place in Italy in the second half of the 18th century. Parini is particularly notable for his moral dignity and for his commitment to the spread of Enlightened, progressive and humanitarian ideals through his public life and writing. Parini's major work is "Il Giorno", a satirical poem in which he exposes the idleness, frivolities and spiritual emptiness of contemporary nobility.
The Napoleonic period was characterized by the rise of Neoclassicism, a cultural trend that spread widely from the figurative arts to literature and the minor arts. The basic tenet of neoclassicism was that Classical art, with its calm and balanced simplicity, expressed a perfect human and spiritual harmony. Art should therefore be the expression of an ideal and timeless beauty and a harmony of form, colour and sound. The major Italian poet of the period was Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828) whose elegant and passionate verse was intended to escape the problems of the time, harking back to the Classical and mythological world and its ever-present ideal beauty.
The works of Ugo Foscolo, one of Italy's major 19th-century poets, fully express the poet's personal occupation with the difficult years of mutation from the Enlightenment to Romanticism, the French Revolution to the Restoration, 18th-century materialism to the Romantic religious angst. They give voice to a lay earthly faith based on the highest human values of truth, justice, beauty, patriotism and liberty. These themes appear in his juvenilia "Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis", an autobiographical story in the form of letters, two odes and "Le Grazie" (of clear Neoclassic influence), but reach their fullest and most poetic expression in the sonnet sequence and his most successful poem, "I Sepolcri".
One of the great Italian poets of the 19th century was Giacomo Leopardi for the depth of his thought, his acute understanding of psychology and the power of his poetic expression. Leopardi's characteristic existential anguish reflects the general European spiritual and philosophical crisis that marked the end of the Enlightenment and the rise of Romanticism. The sceptical concepts of 18th-century rationalism could not preclude Romantic angst about the infinite, the eternal, a reason for life beyond ennui, universal sorrow and inevitable death. Leopardi's lyrical poems sing of illusion, love, beauty and the noble human emotions as a comfort against the agonizing process of living and an affirmation of Man's inherent dignity.
Alessandro Manzoni's life and writings display a balance between Enlightened ideals (justice, freedom and democracy), Romanticism and Catholicism. Manzoni's inner strife led to an abandonment of rationalist ideals in favour of Catholicism but without renouncing Enlightened values.This spiritual evolution can be seen in the "Inni Sacri" - five poems which describe human affections within the scope of the Catholic faith - the odes, the tragedies ("Il Conte di Carmagnola" and "Adelchi") and particularly in "I Promessi Sposi", a historical novel set in the 17th century. Manzoni aims to present life with all its injustices and surprises, where only the constant presence of God can bring relief and meaning to human existence.
The romantic movement in Italy was not the complex cultural revolution that it was in other European countries. It did coincide however with the nationalistic liberalism of the Risorgimento and gave rise to a richness of didactic and historical writing. The two most notable schools are the Catholic-liberal, moderate and reformist, represented by Vincenzo Gioberti and a more democratic, radical and revolutionary one represented by Giuseppe Mazzini. Memoirs in the form of Romantic autobiographical confession (Pellico, Nievo, Settembrini, Abba); lyric, often sentimental poetry (Prati, Aleardi); sincere patriotism (Berchet, Mameli) and satirical poetry in dialect (Porta, Giusti) also enjoyed some measure of literary success.
The principal characteristics of the "Scapigliatura" movement of the mid-19th century were a deep-rooted aversion to the sentimentalism and conformism of late Romanticism and a conviction that the only valid subject of poetry was "truth". In the end, however, the group (Arrigo Boito, Emilio Praga, Iginio Ugo Tarchetti and Giovanni Camerana as well as the painters Daniele Ranzoni and Tanquillo Cremona) failed to create a new poetic movement and remained purely avant-garde writers in revolt, in both life and art, against middle-class conformism, "official" literature, the patriotism of the Risorgimento and all other forms of social and literary convention.
The return to the Classical tradition characteristic of the latter half of the 19th century was in itself the reaction against the sentimentalists of late Romanticism and the primary example of this tardy and nostalgic Neoclassicism is supplied by the work of Giosuè Carducci, the great literary figure of the age and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1906. The prevailing inspiration of Carducci's poetry was Classical myth which concurred with his own beliefs in the dignity of Man, in moral strength and heroism, a vigorous outlook on life and a love for the beauty of Nature. Carducci also believed that his talents licensed him to embark on a political mission.
The second half of the 19th century saw the rise of a realist tendency in Italian literature created by the reaction against Romantic idealism. The Realist movement proposed an objective, scientific analysis of society and the psychology of the individual, detached from any personal, emotional or ideological intrusion from the author. The master of Realism was Giovanni Verga (1840-1922) whose novels, particularly "I Malavoglia", describe the dismal world of the dispossessed and wretched in Sicily, oppressed by a symbolic adverse Fate. Luigi Capuana (1839-1915), Federico de Roberto (1866-1927) and Grazia Deledda (1871-1936), Nobel Prize winner in 1926, can also be considered as members of the group.
"Decadent" literature was the reaction against the excessive rational positivism which led to extremes of irrationality typical of Romanticism and the first important Italian exponent of the Decadence was Antonio Fogazzaro. His work displays a lyric-subjective style in which a sense of the mysterious is combined with suggestions of the subconscious, sensuality is put against the author's deep religious sense, and arcane, ineffable spiritual experiences are sought. These trends can be seen in the two major novels "Piccolo Mondo Antico" and "Malombra".
Together with D'Annunzio and Fogazzaro, Giovanni Pascoli is representative of the spiritual unrest and decadent taste typical of late 19th-century Italian literature. Pascoli had a deep personal involvement in the crisis of the times, the tensions arising from social change and the loss of faith in science. Constant traits in his poetry are an escape from reality through history, a regression to infancy and a concept of Nature as Man's only salvation. His philosophy was based on the knowledge that the truth of being can be reached only through poetry. Poetry therefore becomes a supreme form of knowledge, a mystic revelation that can be attained only by keeping the spirit in a form of childlike awe before the world's mysteries.
The most complete expression of the Decadence in Italy is supplied by the life and works of Gabriele D'Annunzio. He explored aesthetic mysticism and the irrational, linking them to his own naturalistic and sensual feeling. Abandoning reason as a means for knowledge, D'Annunzio gave himself up to instinct and the senses, seeing in them the way to deeper life and the mysteries of the ego which were at one with the secrets of nature. The passionate verve of his emotions was given ample voice through a variety of form, technical innovation and an evocative and original use of language. These can be seen both in his novels ("Il Piacere", "L'Innocente", "Il Fuoco") and in his collections of poems ("Laudi", "Canto novo").
Early 20th-century thought was characterized by a deep anxiety, a sense of insecurity caused by the loss of faith in positivism, in science and in reason. The "Crepuscolari" (poets, as it were, of a disenchanted twilight) gave expression to this prevailing literary climate of tiredness, spiritual exhaustion, disillusion, withdrawal and general rejection of contemporary political, social and cultural problems. The poet to voice this languid melancholy most clearly was Guido Gozzano (1883-1916) whose permanence lies in his skillful use of a simple and colloquial poetic language.
The Futurist movement proclaimed vast change for all the arts and even proposed new life-styles and a new philosophy. In the general irrationalism of the early 20th century, the Futurists sought to be the voice of the dynamism of the modern world, praising the new machine age and glorifying - in varying degrees of velleity - irrational energy, immediate and aggressive energy, violence, heroism and war. The Futurist writers (Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Corrado Govoni, Giovanni Papini, Aldo Palazzeschi) searched for fresh modes of expression that led them to a new analysis of language, involving a rejection of syntax, with the aim of expressing the "nowness" of the workings of the psyche through analogy and suggestion.
The works of Luigi Pirandello (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934) originated on the fringes of Realism but soon took on their own identity by their bitter and paradoxically ironic view of life. Pirandello focussed on the individual, his anxieties and his desperate attempts to live, to be someone, which always go unsatisfied and finish in bizarre, often insane gestures. In an indecipherable universe all appears relative, including the individual, whose discovery of this emptiness and the insignificance of existence is at the heart of Pirandello's novels ("Uno, Nessuno, Centomila"; "Il fu Mattia Pascal") and his plays ("Sei Personaggi in cerca d'Autore", "Enrico IV", "Così è, se vi pare").
The writings of Italo Svevo (pseudonym of the Triestine writer Ettore Schmitz) are close to the Pirandellian spirit and his major novels ("Una Vita", "Senilit`", "La Coscienza di Zeno") have an autobiographical background. They are an attempt to reach the innermost recesses of the mind through psychological analysis rather than straightforward narrative. The typical Svevian character is a loser, a man incapable of living, except on a mental level, because of the constant introspection which paralyses his will to act while leaving him fully aware of his sickness and defeat.
The Italian philosopher of highest repute and European eminence in the early 20th century was Benedetto Croce, who held veritable and long-lasting dominion in Italian culture. He was the first advocate of the individual as creator, as well as reaffirming spiritual values and seeing history as the progress of freedom. He was also significant in literary criticism, which he based on firm aesthetic canons: poetry is the expression, in lyrical and fantastical images, of an emotion which, divesting itself of any subjective immediacy and through artistic contemplation, becomes a form of divine instinct.
The Fascist dictatorship of the years between the wars condemned Italian intellectualism to a conformist void through a blocking of free expression by strict censorship. Out of this wasteland there emerged a movement headed by the review "La Ronda". The writers of this movement (Emilio Cecchi, Bruno Barilli and Vincenzo Cardarelli) produced the "good" (in a purely formal and stylistic sense) literature of the time. Another writer linked to the Ronda group but distinguished by his greater originality was Riccardo Bacchelli whose work shows the influence of 19th-century literature. A group of authors who formed the magazine "Solaria" tried to deal with the same problems as European literature.
The most interesting literary trend during the Fascist era is constituted by the so-called opposition literature, which focussed on the lesser-known aspects of contemporary Italy. The major authors were Ignazio Silone (whose novels were appreciated outside Italy but published there only after the war), Corrado Alvaro and, particularly, Alberto Moravia. Starting with "Gli Indifferenti", this last developed an acute psychological analysis of contemporary man and the crisis of his values. Other noteworthy figures of the time are Piero Gobetti and Antonio Gramsci, whose writings are of primarily political interest.
The Fascist period saw the confirmation of "ermetismo" and the principal poets were Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eugenio Montale (Noble Prize winner in 1975) and, initially, Salvatore Quasimodo. Their objective was to write a "pure" lyric poetry, free from all narrative or descriptive intent, that would be the immediate and total expression of man and his situation. The recurring themes are the suffering caused by the crisis of values in modern civilization, the desperate solitude of man and the disturbing knowledge of the sadness of life. There was also a revolution in their use of language, with words taking on new and suggestive analogies. One poet to stand apart was Umberto Saba who continued in a more traditional verse.
Italian culture enjoyed a profound renewal with the end of the war and the return to freedom. There was a new vitality and a neo-Realism which prompted writers to concentrate on their surroundings and describe them freely. The innovators were Cesare Pavese and Elio Vittorini, "discoverers" of contemporary American literature which they subsequently developed into an original lyricism and autobiography, always based on the lessons of Realism. In post-war Italian neo-Realist literature one finds an important "regional" current. Francesco Jovine described the social differences, the poverty and ignorance and the abuses of elitist privileged in the South ("Le Terre di Sacramento"). Beppe Fenoglio portrayed the hard life of the constantly-exploited Piedmontese peasant world ("La Malora", "Il partigiano Johnny"). Leonardo Sciascia subjected the Sicilian Mafia to acute analysis ("Il Giorno della Civetta", "A ciascuno il suo"). Pier Paolo Pasolini, poet, novelist and director, wrote profound psycho-sociological studies of Roman proletarian youth ("Ragazzi di vita", "Una vita violenta"). The memoirs and autobiographical works of the post-war period were inspired by recent history - the war itself with the deportations and the Resistance. Primo Levi's "Se questo è un uomo" describes in realistic detail the brutal horrors of life in a concentration camp. Carlo Levi's "Cristo si è fermato a Eboli" depicts the life of a political internee in the primitive, archaic world of the South. The ordeals of the Russian campaign are amply portrayed in Mario Rigoni Stern's "Il sergente nella neve". Other personal memories of the war period were penned by Vittorini, Calvino, Fenoglio, Bassani and Pavese. Neo-Realism declined at the beginning of the 1950's and there emerged a fiction dealing with personal and existential themes. Giorgio Bassani's "Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini" gives a careful consideration of psychological questions within the setting of the Fascist and war period. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote a highly nuanced portrait of Sicilian society at the time of Unification in his "Il Gattopardo". Carlo Cassola's interest was in the basic experiences of everyday life which he describes in two novels:"Il taglio del bosco" and "La ragazza di Bube". Vasco Pratolini's works, "Metello" and "Cronache di poveri amanti", mix psychological themes with realist observation.
The "Hermetic" tradition had been transformed gradually by the heirs to Ungaretti and Montale into elegant stylistic experiment which lacked the existential analysis of the original movement. However, fresh horizons appeared in Italian poetry after the war and there was a new ideological, political and moral commitment on the part of the poets. Combined with this was the readiness for more open dialogue and movement towards realism which chose direct and simple language over solitary lyricism. The major poets included Salvatore Quasimodo (Nobel Prize winner in 1959), Mario Luzi, Vittorio Sereni and Alfonso Gatto.
Amongst the many successful writers to emerge in the last few decades, some deserve particular mention: Italo Calvino, whose philosophical tales have an original and fantastical twist ("I nostri antenati"); Carlo Emilio Gadda who uses an anti-traditional language to portray contemporary society; Dino Buzzati ("Il deserto dei Tartari") and Elsa Morante ("La storia") who study the psychological workings of man. Umberto Eco's historical mystery novel "Il nome della rosa" (In the Name of the Rose) has enjoyed great international success.
Edizione HTML a cura di:
Riccardo.Scateni@crs4.it
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