'Puttane a Brigate': The Topos of Prostitution In Early-Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry

Abstract

Representations of prostitution emerge as a prominent and recurring element in the work of a range of poets in early-twentieth-century Italy. Following a brief review of historical and cultural contexts (including French art of the late nineteenth century), this article considers different treatments of the image of prostitution in relation to shifting modes of poetic expression in the period. From the work of Lucini to that of the Futurist mainstream, to Palazzeschi and other more isolated voices, representations of the prostitute are used in a variety of ways: for their ability to shock and titillate, as vehicles for ideological polemics, or as icons of urban modernity itself (with all the possibilities for irony and insincerity inherent in the image). Through the wide range of its formal treatments, the image of prostitution is presented as a paradigm of the evolution and cross-fertilization of poetic styles and the anti-lyrical, de-sublimatory tendencies of these years.