Меморандум «Новый итальянский эпос»

Abstract

The article examines the main theses of the New Italian Epic Memorandum (2009) written by an Italian literary group “Wu Ming” as well as response of critics and literary theorists to its publication. The paper discusses the notion of the author’s voice and author’s persona in the context of the modern literary process, as well as other theoretical postulates of the group. The underlying idea of the Memorandum is the concept of the New Italian Epic (NIE), a body of relevant modern works written after 2000 and sharing common features. The main idea of the NIE concerns the development of narrative crossroads between literature, journalism, movies, animation, and documentary, with the use of visual effects, allegoric figures, simplified stylistics, and hyperrealism. The Memorandum also calls to abandon traditional literary forms and style. Instead of the term “novel,” the authors suggest an alternative definition: “indefinite narrative object.” Between 2009 and 2019, Wu Ming 1 (Roberto Bui) gives detailed answers to critical comments and continues to develop their theory that can no longer be ignored by Italian literary scholars.