19th and 20th Centuries

The 19th Century
Liberation and unification had been a hope of Italian writers since the 13th century. At that time nationalism had been manifested, among other ways, by the development of an Italian literary language. The hope of liberation was stimulated further by the French Revolution, which released a fervent nationalism throughout Europe. From the beginning of the 19th century until 1870, when the evacuation of French troops from Rome removed the last trace of foreign domination, the prevailing influence in Italian literature and in almost every phase of Italian life was nationalism, in its particular Italian form called the Risorgimento.

Nationalism, Romanticism, and Classicism

Early 19th-century Italian literature was marked not only by nationalism but also by a lingering classicism and by a new spirit of romanticism, which, emphasizing history and tradition, encouraged nationalism. The great influence on Italy by the French Revolution and Napoleon I is directly evident in the works of Vincenzo Monti, Ugo Foscolo, and Carlo Porta. Monti's writings mirror the instability of his convictions. He began as a foe of the French Revolution, as shown in his poem La bassvilliana (1793), about the assassination of the French envoy Hugo Bassville, and he later favored the French cause, extolling Napoleon in a series of poems. Monti is best known for his translation of Homer's Iliad.

Ugo Foscolo was a more stable personality than Monti. He served as a soldier and teacher in Italy during the French occupation, and on the return of the Austrians, he went to England, where he died. Foscolo's fame was established by an epistolary romance, Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis (1798; The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, 1818), patterned on The Sorrows of the Young Werther by the German poet and novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Foscolo's novel is a fusion of romantic love and ardent patriotism. Later his patriotism yielded to a resigned contemplation of the past glories of his divided country, the fairest provinces of which remained under foreign rule. In this mood, he wrote his masterpiece, I sepolcri (1807; The Sepulchers, 1860). In his later poems he turned from his passion for Italy to celebrate the ancient world.

The poet Carlo Porta, who wrote in a Milanese dialect, was concerned with describing the miserable life of the Italian common people during the Napoleonic period. He condemned the role of the clergy and nobility, but without excessive bitterness, in Poesie in dialetto milanese (Poetry in the Milanese Dialect, 1821).

Giacomo Leopardi stands out as one of the greatest lyric poets in Italian literature. In his secluded home he made himself a classical scholar, and then, schooled by his translations of Greek and Latin poetry, emerged as a poet of deep feeling. His first compositions were patriotic, such as "To Italy" and "On the Monument of Dante." Later a pessimistic strain pervaded his work. His poems were published singly or in partial collections. The first complete edition, I canti (Songs), appeared in 1831 and was translated in 1962. His pessimism was expressed also in his prose writings, notably Operette morali (1827; trans. in Essays, Dialogues, and Thoughts, 1893 and 1905), Zibaldone (Miscellany, 7 vol., 1898-1900), and his masterly letters. He did not look kindly on romanticism, yet his introspection, his desolation, and his nostalgia for the unattainable link him with the romantics. On the other hand, the aristocratic purity and elevation of his literary style, his use of classic forms, and his rationalism link him with the classicists.

Outstanding among the political writers of the Risorgimento was the patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, whose political activities cost him imprisonment and exile. He ranks with the statesman Camillo Benso di Cavour and the soldier Giuseppe Garibaldi among the fathers of Italian liberty. Mazzini's impassioned yet polished political writings continue to be read with interest.

Nationalism gave rise to two other strains in 19th-century Italian literature. One was a new regional feeling that manifested itself in a realistic presentation of regional life, often in the dialect of the region. The other rose out of the conflict over the temporal power of the papacy. A major obstacle to the unification of Italy had been the Papal States, which the foreign powers, notably France, had supported in their own national interests. On this issue Italian nationalism came into conflict with religion, and the conflict was resolved variously by different writers. The more nationalist or revolutionary writers expressed antagonism to the church; other writers withdrew to what they considered the more serene values of the pre-Christian classical civilization; still others reaffirmed the Christian faith.

Foremost among the last-named group of writers is Alessandro Manzoni, the author of the famous 19th-century masterpiece of Italian romantic fiction I promessi sposi (1825-27; The Betrothed, 1834). It is basically the story of two humble lovers struggling against oppression and a hostile fate in 17th-century Italy, then under Spanish domination. Safeguarded by historical accuracy, Manzoni was able to ridicule and attack foreign oppression of any kind in any period, and to his fellow patriots the parallel with the contemporary domination by Austria was clear. The universal message of the work, however, which with its masterly style has gained it world renown, is the need for people to trust to divine providence rather than to human plans for the eventual triumph of good over evil. His Inni sacri (Sacred Hymns, 1810) revealed Manzoni's preoccupation with religious thought, and his later work is imbued with a strong pietistic spirit. Manzoni acquired European fame with an ode written on the occasion of Napoleon's death and translated into German by Goethe. Manzoni's two plays—Il conte di Carmagnola (1820; Count of Carmagnola, 1868), about a Renaissance condottiere, or commander of mercenaries, and Adelchi (1822; trans. 1868), about the heir of the last king of the Lombards—anticipate the religious and patriotic themes of The Betrothed.

Manzoni's clear and effective prose has none of the classical embellishments found in the works of Foscolo and Monti. His search for a mystic order in history, his preoccupation with the Middle Ages, and his sense of the imperfection and incompleteness of mortal life link him with the romantics. Manzoni's Lettera sul romanticismo (Letter on Romanticism, 1823) defends romanticism as opposed to the conventions of classicism.

Manzoni was also deeply concerned with the Italian language. In the course of the centuries the basically Tuscan Italian vocabulary had been enriched by contributions from other regional vernaculars. This development, in Manzoni's opinion, had resulted in a swollen, confusing, repetitive vocabulary, and he advocated a return to the Florentine vernacular as spoken by the cultivated classes.

Toward the middle of the 19th century the influence of Manzoni and romanticism in general provoked a reaction accompanied by a classicism more aggressive than that of Monti. The reaction culminated in the work of the poet Giosuè Carducci, who extolled Italian hope and Roman glory. His work was an assertion of classic reason as opposed to romantic mysticism and Roman Catholic piety. Among his outstanding writings are Levia gravia (1861-77; trans. in Political and Satiric Verse of Giosuè Carducci, 1942), Rime nuove (1861-87; New Rhymes, 1916), Odi barbare (1877-89; Pagan Odes, 1950), and Rime e ritmi (1899; Lyrics and Rhythms, 1942). Carducci was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906.

Verist Literature

A reaction against classicism and romanticism as unrealistic marked the second half of the 19th century. It was a revolt against a literature obsessed by the past and its own past achievements, and with its roots in books rather than in life. Shunning conscious lyricism and rhetoric, leaders of this reaction advocated everyday speech and a simple style. The poets exalted reality as the truth and named the movement verismo (Italian, "realism").

The verist trend imparted a new significance to the regional dialect poetry that characterizes this period as well as the beginnings of the 20th century. Earlier poets had written in dialect, notably Giambattista Basile, who wrote Lo cunto de li cunti (1634; The Tale of Tales, 1932) in Neapolitan; and Porta, who wrote in Milanese. The 19th-century dialect poets included a master of even greater significance, Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli, who wrote more than 2000 descriptive sonnets in Roman dialect depicting the Roman populace grumbling humorously at social conditions and at the mismanagements of the pontifical administration.

The verist movement affected drama and fiction as well as lyric poetry. The one great novelist of this movement is Giovanni Verga, a leader of the Sicilian realists. His major works include the novels I malavoglia (1881; The House by the Medlar Tree, 1890) and Mastro-don Gesualdo (1889; trans. 1923). Two of his collections of short stories have been translated as Little Novels of Sicily (1925) and Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Tales (1928). The latter inspired the famous opera by Pietro Mascagni. Verga presented realistic pictures of the humble and often miserable lives of the Sicilian peasantry.

Opposed to and yet influenced by the verist trend was the poet Giovanni Pascoli. His lyrics have an idyllic note and in their evocations of rustic life come close in spirit to the Georgics of Vergil. His classicism contained no anti-Catholicism; on the contrary, he hailed Dante for his Christian spirituality. Pascoli's style is marked by loose metrics and avoidance of rhetoric. His work prepared the way for Italian free verse. Another antagonist of realism was the poet and novelist Antonio Fogazzaro. Although a sincere Roman Catholic, he campaigned for the acceptance of Darwinism, and in Il santo (1905; The Saint, 1906) he espoused a form of religious modernism that brought him condemnation by Roman Catholic authorities. His novels see a way out of the moral crisis resulting from social revolution and advances in science. Fogazzaro's novels include Malombra (1881; The Woman, 1907), Daniele Cortis (1885; trans. 1887), and Piccolo mondo antico (1896; The Patriot, 1906). The latter, also translated as Little World of the Past (1962), is generally considered his best work.

Several other Italian writers are not associated directly with the literary trends of the period. Edmondo De Amicis is noted for his novels and travel books. His best-known work is Cuore (Heart, 1886), written in the form of a journal kept by an Italian schoolboy. Carlo Collodi wrote the famous children's story Le avventure di Pinocchio (1883; The Adventures of Pinocchio, 1892).

Francesco De Sanctis was the foremost critic of the period and the founder of modern Italian literary criticism. Such works as Saggi critici (Critical Essays, 1881), La letteratura italiana nel secolo XIX (Italian Literature in the 19th Century, 1897), and especially Storia della letteratura italiana (1871; History of Italian Literature, 1931) apply sociological and psychological perceptions to literary evaluations with great judgment and skill.

The 20th Century

Italian literature of the 20th century displays a rich variety of forms and concerns. Much of it reflects the experiences of the years of fascist rule; after World War II a concern for social realism dominated, to be succeeded by deeply introspective poetry and prose.

Transitional Writers

At the turn of the century, as the attempt to expand Italy's colonial empire became dominant in politics, a preoccupation with individual rather than social concerns began to be reflected in literature. Several writers may be grouped together as representative of the modes of thought of those who bridged the gap between the 19th and 20th centuries.

The 19th-century Italian writer whose influence carried over most strongly into the 20th century was Gabriele D'Annunzio. He broke through the limitations of romanticism, realism, and classicism in his aspiration to be the modern example of the Renaissance universal man. His writings include poetry, fiction, drama, and opera librettos. D'Annunzio claimed recognition also as a soldier and political leader and as a philosopher influenced at different times by the German philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. Some of D'Annunzio's best writings are the collection of poetry Laudi (Hymns of Praise, 3 vol., 1903-12), the novel Il trionfo della morte (1894; The Triumph of Death, 1896), and the play La figlia di lorio (1904; The Daughter of Jorio, 1907), as well as political works and patriotic addresses.

Another important transitional figure was Italo Svevo. Svevo's work was neglected completely until it was discovered by the French journalist and novelist Valéry Larbaud and the Irish writer James Joyce, and brought to the attention of Italian critics. Svevo's strength lies in his realistic portrayal of psychological motivations. His fame rests on the novels Una vita (1893; A Life, 1963), Senilità (1898; As a Man Grows Older, 1932), and La coscienza di Zeno (1923; The Confessions of Zeno, 1930).

Guglielmo Ferrero was outstanding as a sociological historian and an opponent of fascism. His principal work is Grandezza e decadenza di Roma (1902-07; The Greatness and Decline of Rome, 1907-09). The philosopher Giovanni Gentile, on the other hand, was a proponent of fascism, noted for his Origini e dotrina del fascismo (Origins and Doctrine of Fascism, 1929) and La filosofia dell' arte (1931; The Philosophy of Art, 1972). Matilda Serao was a notable psychological novelist. Among her works are Il paese di Cuccagna (1891; The Land of Cockayne, 1901) and La ballerina (2 vol., 1899; The Ballet Dancer, 1901). The dramatist Sem Benelli became famous as the author of La cena delle beffe (1909; The Jester's Supper, 1924-25; produced in New York City as The Jest, 1919) and L'amore dei tre re (1910; The Love of Three Kings, 1923). Grazia Deledda was known for naturalistic novels about the Sardinian peasantry, such as Elias Portolú (1903) and La madre (1920; The Mother, 1923). She received the Nobel Prize in 1926.

Literature Before World War II

Partly through the influence of foreign literary trends, various movements developed at the beginning of the 20th century in opposition to rhetoric and lyricism in poetry. The most effective and extremist of these movements, which advocated a simplification of syntax and metrics, was futurism. The founder of futurism, the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, used language stripped to essentials. Insisting that 20th-century literature should express the characteristic dynamism of industry, he advocated a type of writing that would emulate the speed and tension of machines. He also became a leading proponent of Italian intervention in World War I and was later an advocate of fascism.

The most important thinker in early 20th-century Italy was the philosopher, statesman, literary critic, and historian Benedetto Croce, whose influence became worldwide. His bimonthly periodical La Critica (1903-44) and his literary and philosophical works developed the ideas of the 18th-century philosopher Giovanni Battista Vico and stressed the importance of intuition in art and of freedom in the development of civilization. His position of idealism was in strong opposition to the positivistic thinking then current in Italy. Croce believed that the intellectual should participate in public life and was himself openly opposed to fascism. His major philosophical work, Filosofia come scienza dello spirito (1902-17; Philosophy of the Spirit, 1909-21), consists of four volumes, one each devoted to aesthetics, logic, practical thinking, and history. His autobiography, published in 1918, is the record of a rich and varied life.

Besides La Critica, two other periodicals acted as the forum of different groups of Italian writers. Voce (1908-16), directed by the writer Giuseppe Prezzolini, helped to modernize Italian culture and introduce into Italy significant French, British, and American ideas. Outstanding among Prezzolini's collaborators were the painter and writer Ardengo Soffici and the philosopher and writer Giovanni Papini. The other important periodical, Ronda (1919-23), was reactionary in tendency and classical in inspiration. From its circle came the writers Antonio Baldini and Riccardo Bacchelli.

A unique figure throughout the first three decades of the century was the novelist, short-story writer, and playwright Luigi Pirandello, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1934. He introduced into his plays original dramatic devices that tended to bring actors and the audience into closer relation. Many of his plays are dramatizations of earlier stories, and most of them treat philosophical problems, such as relativism and multiple personality, with subtle psychological insight illuminated by graceful wit. The most famous of Pirandello's plays include the following: Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (1921; Six Characters in Search of an Author, 1922), Enrico IV (1922; Henry IV, 1922), and Come tu mi vuoi (1930; As You Desire Me, 1931). His novels include Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904; The Late Mattia Pascal, 1923) and I vecchi e i giovani (1913; The Old and the Young, 1928).

The emergence of fascism in Italy under Benito Mussolini endangered the vitality of Italian literature. Fascism failed to create a type of literature congenial to the government in power. The outstanding authors of the time reacted variously to the stifling intellectual conditions and to the contempt for human freedom contained in the Fascist political philosophy. Many were outspoken in their opposition, among them the writer and scholar Giuseppe Antonio Borgese. He realistically appraised the political situation in Goliath, The March of Fascism (1937), which was written in EnglIsh, but which was not translated into Italian until ten years later. The novelist Ignazio Silone, who went into exile, became more famous abroad than in Italy for his searching political novels, notably Fontamara (1933; trans. 1934) and Pane e vino (1937; first pub. in English as Bread and Wine, 1936). Croce was forced into retirement under fascism; the journalist and diplomat Curzio Suckert, who wrote under the pseudonym Malaparte, served the government in an official capacity but ended by repudiating Mussolini. His most powerful work, Kaputt (1944; trans. 1946), depicts the moral and cultural degeneration of Europe under fascism.

Literature After World War II

After World War II a number of Italian writers came into international prominence.

Poetry

Giuseppe Ungaretti, who ranks with Eugenio Montale among the foremost European poets of the 20th century, published his first book of verse, Il porto sepolto (The Buried Harbor), in 1916, marking the beginning of a period of great revival in Italian poetry. His works, the most important of which are Allegria di naufragi (Gaiety of the Outcasts, 1919), Sentimento del tempo (Feeling of Time, 1933), Il dolore (The Pain, 1947), and La terra promessa (The Promised Land, 1954), have been collected under the title Vita di un uomo (Life of a Man, 1958). His poetry is characterized by a sparing use of words and by his power to create illuminating images of unusual lyric intensity.

Montale's major poems are found in three books: Ossi di seppia (Cuttlefish Bones, 1925), Le occasioni (The Occasions, 1939), and La bufera e altro (The Whirlwind and More, 1956); these were published in a collected edition, Poesie (1958; trans. 1964). His lyric verse, often highly compressed and hermetic, contains a harsh and intellectual criticism of life and is at times deeply pessimistic in tone. In 1975 Montale was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

Salvatore Quasimodo's collections of poems, including Ed è subito sera (And Suddenly It Is Evening, 1942), Giorno dopo giorno (Day After Day, 1947), La vita non è sogno (Life Is Not a Dream, 1949), and Il falso e vero verde (The False and True Green, 1953), reveal a passionate lyrical awareness of tragedy in modern life. Quasimodo was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1959. The Selected Writings of Salvatore Quasimodo (1960) and To Give and to Have and Other Poems (1969) are English editions.

Fiction

A few years after the war a new type of realism appeared in the Italian cinema, which enjoyed a period of unique creativity, and simultaneously critics began to speak of an Italian literary neorealism. Among the outstanding figures were Carlo Levi, who exposed the plight of farmers of southern Italy in his best-seller Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1946; Christ Stopped at Eboli, 1947); Elio Vittorini, the author of Conversazione in Sicilia (1941; In Sicily, 1949); and Vasco Pratolini, who wrote Cronache di poveri amanti (1947; A Tale of Poor Lovers, 1949). Other major figures are Mario Soldati, noted for his Lettere da Capri (1954; Affair in Capri: The Capri Letters, 1957); Cesare Pavese, whose works include Tra donne sole (1949; Among Women Only, 1959), Il diavolo sulle colline (1949; The Devil in the Hills, 1959), and La luna e i falò (1950; The Moon and the Bonfires, 1950); and Vitaliano Brancati, a keen critic of contemporary Sicilian society as shown in Il bell' Antonio (1949; Antonio the Great Lover, 1952). A noveL that earned acclaim internationally, Il gattopardo (1958; The Leopard, 1960), by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, is set against the background of Sicilian life; it was made into an acclaimed film.

Besides Pirandello, the best-known modern Italian writer, especially in the U.S., was Alberto Moravia, a prolific author notable for his novels and short stories of contemporary human situations. He wrote in a spare, realistic prose style about the moral dilemmas of men and women trapped in social and emotional circumstances. His most popular work is La ciociara (1957; Two Women, 1959), a novel about a mother and her daughter in war-torn Italy. The story was made into a successful motion picture. Another acclaimed motion picture was based on a haunting novel by Giorgio Bassani,The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1962; trans. 1965). The story of the plight of an Italian Jewish family under fascism, it is set in the author's native Ferrara.

Among the more notable post-war novelists are Dino Buzzati, whose allegorical writings include the novel Il deserto dei Tartari (1940; The Tartar Steppe, 1952) and the play Un caso clinico (A Clinical Case, 1953); and Elsa Morante, whose fiction has an epic, mythic quality—as in Menzogna e sortilegio (1948; House of Liars, 1951), the saga of a southern Italian family, and La storia (1974; History, 1977). The latter, which enjoyed great popularity, is about a half-Jewish schoolteacher in Rome during the war years. Natalia Levi Ginzburg, a poet and novelist, won renown for her sensitive, spare treatment of modern Italian children and women, isolated within the family setting, in such works as Le voci della sera (1961; Voices in the Evening, 1963) and Lessico famigliare (1963; Family Sayings, 1967). The latter comprises essays on her early life in Turin. Primo Levi, trained as a chemist, devoted himself to writing in 1977. Besides memoirs of his imprisonment in Auschwitz during the war and short stories (collected and published in translation as Moments of Reprieve, 1985), he wrote Il sistema periodico (1984; The Periodic Table, 1984), autobiographical essays using chemistry as a metaphor for life. Umberto Eco, a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna, combined his interest in signs with a concern for historical accuracy in Il nome della rosa (1980; The Name of the Rose, 1983); this murder mystery, set in a medieval monastery, achieved international best-sellerdom. Italo Calvino, author of the novels Il barone rampante (1957; The Baron in the Trees, 1959) and Le cosmicomiche (1965; Cosmicomics, 1968), achieved popularity with his later works, Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (1979; If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, 1981) and Palomar (1983; Mr. Palomar, 1985). The theme of his last novel is that any attempts to comprehend the human situation are completely fruitless. Leonardo Sciascia wrote a modern version of the French satirist Voltaire's Candide, Candido (1977; trans. 1979), a pessimistic novel that involves a Sicilian orphan who is outcast from the world. Sciascia's short stories have been published in translation as The Wine-Dark Sea (1985).

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