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Italian Literature

The origins of an Italian Literature
The Sicilian and Tuscan Poets
"Dolce Stil Novo"
14th-Century Prose
Humanism in the 15th century
Humanistic Prose: Leonardo Da Vinci and Leon Battista Alberti
Printing
The Renaissance
Minor 16th-century literature
The 17th century
17th-century prose: Galileo Galilei and Paolo Sarpi
Cultural revival in the 18th century: "Arcadia" and Pietro Metastasio
Philosophical and historical research: Giovanni Battista Vico and Lodovico Antonio Muratori
The spread of enlightement
The early 19th century and Neoclassicism
The literature of the "Risorgimento"
The "Scapigliutara" Movement
Realism
Decadence
The "Crepuscolari"
Futurismo
Literature of the Fascist era
Opposition Literature during the fascist era
Luigi Pirandello
Italo Svevo
The "Hermetic" movement
Post-war Literature
Post-war Poetry
Contemporary Authors

The origins of an Italian Literature

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 Sicilian and Tuscan Poets

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.

"Dolce Stil Novo"

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.

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Dante Alighieri and Divine Comedy
Francesco Petrarca
Giovanni Boccaccio

14th-Century Prose

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.

Humanism in the 15th century

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.

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Lorenzo De' Medici
Angelo Ambrogini
Luigi Pulci
Matteo Maria Boiardo

Humanistic Prose: Leonardo Da Vinci and Leon Battista Alberti

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.

Printing

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 Renaissance

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.

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Ludovico Ariosto
Niccolo' Machiavelli
Francesco Guicciardini
Torquato Tasso

Minor 16th-century literature

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

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.

17th-century prose: Galileo Galilei and Paolo Sarpi

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.

Cultural revival in the 18th century: "Arcadia" and Pietro Metastasio

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.

Philosophical and historical research: Giovanni Battista Vico and Lodovico Antonio Muratori

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.

The spread of enlightement

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.

Read about Main authors:

Giuseppe Parini

The early 19th century and Neoclassicism

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.

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Ugo Foscolo
Giacomo Leopardi
Alessandro Manzoni

The literature of the "Risorgimento"

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 "Scapigliutara" Movement

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.

Realism

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.

Period of decadentismo

Turn of century - European and French literature Croce - negative attitude toward "voluptuous refinements" and "animal sensuousness" of international decadent movement 1921 Flora. decadentismo as a natural outgrowth of romanticism loses negative connotations late 1930s - still continuing link "cultural and literary experience of decadentismo to social and politica. Notion of decadentismo evolved as reaction to Croce's denunciation of modern decadence in literature and the arts Croce's definition: general aesthetic view - decadence is art for art's sake formalism aesyheticism more specific historical approach direct product of romanticism. Croce rejects decedentism and romanticism: romanticism responsible for deep crisis in art = outstanding characteristic of modernity. Crisis of romantic period antithesis between naive and sentimental poetry classic and romantic art denied unity of art upheld primary importance in art of feeling, passion and fancy romanticism changed its name but continued as realism, verism, symbolism, impressionism, sensualism, imagism, decadentism, and expressionism and futurism tendency to destroy the idea of art romanticism is the modern disease and startingpoint of all decadence For Croce decadentism is, like Baroque, a "concrete historical form of aesthetic sinfulness.

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Benedetto Croce
Gabriele D'annunzio
Giovanni Pascoli
Antonio Fogazzaro

The "Crepuscolari"

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.

Futurismo

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.

Literature of the Fascist era

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.

Opposition Literature during the fascist era

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.

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)

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").

Italo Svevo (1861-1928)

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 "Hermetic" movement

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.

Post-war Literature

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.

Post-war Poetry

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.

Contemporary Authors

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.