Italian Writer Research Articles

<b>GUERRA E POLITICA NE “LE QUATTRO RAGAZZE WIESELBERGER” DI FAUSTA CIALENTE</b>

The novel Le quattro ragazze Wieselberger (The Four Wieselberger Girls), published in 1976 and winner of that year's Strega Prize, is the later work of Fausta Cialente, an important 20th century Italian writer. In it, autobiographical memoirs merge with accounts of the history and politics of the 'short century', in which the dramas that crossed it are analysed: imperialism, racism, wars, totalitarianism and class conflicts. Special attention is paid by the writer to the indifference and greed of the bourgeoisie of her time and the place of women in the working world. In this novel, the soul of the scholar merges with that of the chronicler. Cialente was a cosmopolitan intellectual with a very special life, characterised by frequent travel and feeling like a foreigner everywhere. Today, in Italy, there is renewed interest in this writer, whose novels have recently been republished. This essay dwells on the more non-fiction part of The Four Wieselberger Girls, analysing significant passages in which the author examines the historical situation of her time.

Marina Tsvetaeva Interpreted by Chicca Gagliardo: Expanding the Scope of Russian-Italian Literary Ties

The article examines Tsvetaeva’s trace in the book “The Poet of the Air” by Italian writer Chicca Gagliardo. In the 21st century – at the present stage of Russian literary studies – the problem of dialogue between Russian writers and representatives of world literature is posed and actively studied. While the issue of Marina Tsvetaeva and the Czech Republic has been the subject of extensive research and analysis, and the study on her relationship with France has been published, the same cannot be said for Italy. The relevance of the scientifi c study is incorporating Tsvetaeva’s work into the broader intercultural and international context. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that so far in Russian and Italian literary studies the issue of spiritual dialogue between M. I. Tsvetaeva and Chicca Gagliardo has not been subject of a separate study. The novelty of this study is that neither in Russian nor Italian literary studies has there been a dedicated investigation into the spiritual dialogue between M. I. Tsvetaeva and Chicca Gagliardo. The aim of the article is to trace the presence of Tsvetaeva’s themes and motifs in Gagliardo’s book “The Poet of the Air”. The work used in this paper includes Tsvetaeva’s Collected Works, scholars’ books and articles and websites containing useful information for the research. The biographical and comparative method and the method of comparativist and intertextual analysis form the methodological basis. The results of the study show the role of the Russian poet’s personality and works in the Italian writer’s novel. Tsvetaeva’s themes and motifs in the novel are emphasised, for example the concept of soul, the motifs of the “fl ight of the soul”, insomnia, “captive spirit”, the idea of sky as an abyss and others. We suggest a hypothesis on translations of Tsvetaeva’s works into Italian that Gagliardo might have been familiar with. Gagliardo’s acquaintance with M. Rea’s translation of “Poem of the Air” and S. Vitale’s “Art in the Light of Conscience” is proved. The practical signifi cance of the research lies in the possible use of its materials in the practice of school and university special courses and special seminars on the works of Marina Tsvetaeva and the problem of ‘Russian-Italian cultural and literary ties’. The study allows us to place Marina Tsvetaeva’s work within a broader intercultural and international conception and contributes to the development of Tsvetaeva’s context from an international perspective. The article provides, in particular, a broadening of the scope of the issue “Tsvetaeva’s Reception in Italy”, whereby it can be referred not only to works of realist literature.

The impact of the Strega Prize on Romanian translations

Abstract The article analyses the impact of the Strega Prize on Romanian translations from 1990 to the present day, following the political shift of 1989 that gave rise to a reconfiguration of the cultural sphere. Since the 1990s, Romania has also entered the free market and started to align more with the international publishing landscape, especially regarding translations from a wide range of literature, including Italian. The research avails itself of the constantly updated online database Scrittori italiani tradotti in romeno: 1990-2024 (Italian Writers Translated into Romanian: 1990-2024), created and edited by Afrodita Carmen Cionchin, published in the bilingual intercultural journal “Orizzonti culturali italo-romeni” (“Italo-Romanian Cultural Horizons”). The analysis suggests that the impact of Italy’s most prestigious literary prize on Romanian translations has various facets, from the immediate effect to the spotlight effect to the trailblazing effect for further publications, and to the reverb effect, as well as writers present in Romanian translation with titles other than the book that won the Strega Prize. Consequently, eighteen writers who have won the Strega Prize are available in Romanian translation.

A Knot Fit to Be Untied: A Collective Contrarian ‘We’ in Today’s Mediterranean

This essay analyses two short documentaries, both produced in 2014 (just one year before the publication of Erri De Luca’s La parola contraria), which focus on Lampedusa and its surrounding waters: the documentary Liquid Traces: The Left-to-Die Boat Case, directed by the geographers Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani, and LampeduSani, a TV film born out of the collaboration between the Italian writer Erri De Luca and the Sicilian director Costanza Quatriglio. The two movies will be considered as forms of contrarian speech (‘parola contraria’). The essay shows the challenges faced whenever we are engaged in creating a collective contrarian ‘we’.

‘The Instigation I Aspire To’: Erri De Luca and Contrarian Education

This essay begins with a summary of the trial of Erri De Luca by the Italian state for the alleged crime of instigation, focusing in particular on the discussion during that trial of the definition of the word ‘sabotage’. It then elaborates on the theme of education in De Luca’s self-defense against the Italian state’s charges and connects the Italian writer’s ideas on this subject to the ongoing neoliberal attack in the US against liberal arts education, using the recent history of Hampshire College in Massachusetts as a key example. The essay ends by summarizing an argument that reveals how the US Supreme Court decision from 1957, Sweezy v. New Hampshire – traditionally cited in discussions of free speech on campuses – was in fact borrowed from an earlier debate during the initial phase of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

Образ Средневековья в трилогии Итало Кальвино «Наши предки»

The article delves into the study of the medieval past in the European historical consciousness and cultural memory after the World War II. Reception and representation of the Middle Ages are considered as constants of the development of European and universal culture. The main subject of analysis is the image of the Middle Ages constructed in the fiction of the period. The focus of the study is the trilogy “Our Ancestors” (1960) by the Italian writer, publicist, literary critic Italo Calvino (1923–1985). The image of the Middle Ages in Calvino’s novels is considered in the context of understanding the European Enlightenment and current historical and philosophical reflection. The ways of constructing the image of the Middle Ages in Calvino’s texts are revealed, also its relationship with history, literature and folklore is examined. The study of the image of the Middle Ages can be useful both for clarifying the peculiarities of historical representations of his time and for understanding the epoch itself, which gave rise to the image.

Antonio Tabucchi and the Journey of Self-Discovery:

The article centers on two novels by Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi—Requiem: A hallucination and For Isabel: A mandala. It analyzes the polysemic elements that constitute the symbolic construction of both works, supported by the main tenets of Jungian psychology and in particular the notions of coniunctio oppositorum, individuation, and journey of self-discovery. The investigation explores the relationship of Tabucchi’s narrative with works by Ferdinando Pessoa and Herman Hesse. Homologies between the author’s view of the self, cognition, human reality, and the formal structure of the novels are examined through the Bakhtinian notion of dialogical narrative and through his metaliterary and self-reflexive mode of writing.

Интерпретация категории фантастического в малой прозе Дино Буццати

The purpose of the study is to explain the specifics of the category of the fantastic in the short stories of the 20th-century Italian writer Dino Buzzati. The article examines the features of the interpretation of the fantastic by a writer known for his special approach to the philosophical and aesthetic category that has remained relevant for several centuries. The choice of different collections of short stories for the study is due to the need to analyze the category of the fantastic using the examples of texts separated by a time distance. Over the years, the writer has remained true to the principles of interpretation of the fantastic that he once defined. The scientific novelty of the work is related to the identification of several types of the category of the fantastic in the material of Dino Buzzati’s short stories in accordance with the writer’s concept of the fantastic. As a result of the study, it was found that for Dino Buzzati, the fantastic is not something exceptional, opposed to reality. The category of the unreal is associated with the motives of expectation and fear, which allow a more accurate interpretation of the features of the studied category. In the analyzed stories, the types of the actually fantastic, the conditionally fantastic, and the symbolic fantastic are distinguished. The connection between the categories of the absurd and the fantastic is significant. The category of the incredible occupies an important place in Dino Buzzati’s aesthetic system, influencing its development.

Performing the self: the construction of Casa Malaparte as living images

The paper discusses architectural design as a transdisciplinary practice that interlinks architecture, performance, and the moving image through a building example: the Casa Malaparte, the house of Italian writer Curzio Malaparte (1898–1957) built in Capri, Italy, between 1938 and 1942. Malaparte stated many times that he considered his house the best portrait of himself and he called the Casa Malaparte ‘A House Like Me’. Through theoretical, archival, and fieldwork research, the paper argues that the house performs Malaparte's autobiography. Unlike the conventional architectural design process, the Casa Malaparte was built by its owner Curzio Malaparte in collaboration with a master builder in an improvisational manner that incorporated methods of cinematic framing, material collage, and assemblage. The house is discussed as a self-portrait of its inhabitant questioning what could be architecture's role in mirroring the self and theorises Casa Malaparte's creation as a practice that works in between architecture, performance, and the visual arts. By drawing on Bertolt Brecht's ‘alienation effect’, Antonin Artaud's ‘theatre of cruelty’, and Denis Diderot discussion of the ‘tableau vivant’ which literally means ‘living pictures’, the paper provides theoretical frameworks that bring together spatial and performance theories. The Casa Malaparte as a tableau vivant is discussed as an alternative performative device that can potentially expand architectural design and render it as a living practice.

Giuseppe Levi, Natalia Ginzburg, and Lessico Famigliare (Family Lexicon): a seminal figure in the history of neuron cell biology and histology seen through his daughter's literary eyes.

One of the most important figures in the history of neurohistology, Giuseppe Levi (1872-1965) contributed in numerous ways to neuroscience, particularly in the fields of neuronal plasticity and the understanding of sensory ganglia. His daughter Natalia Ginzburg, née Levi (1916-1991), on the other hand, achieved fame as one of the most celebrated Italian writers of the twentieth century. Lessico Famigliare (Family Lexicon), from 1963, is a semibiographical account of her life in which she describes the life and character of her father in detail, providing depth and complexity to a seminal figures in the development of neuroscience. A thorough reading of the book enables modern neurologists to fully appreciate Levi's life and contributions, by means of humanizing him and giving context to his life and works. The present article provides a summary of Levi's and Natalia's lives and times as well as an analysis of the book and of the intimate, vivid descriptions of the neurohistologist's life.

Coming of Age among Multiple Languages: Exploring the ‘Polyglot’ as an Intersectional Subject in Claudia Durastanti’s La Straniera (2019)

ABSTRACT Claudia Durastanti belongs to a new generation of Italian writers who embrace life on the move, writing outside of the borders of Italy and living between different languages and cultures. Durastanti’s memoir, La straniera (2019), is the personal story of the writer moving between New York, Basilicata, Rome, and London. The constant code-switching due to the author’s double nationality is also entangled in the sign language spoken by Durastanti’s deaf mother. By analysing Durastanti’s linguistic coming of age through a second language and the relationship with her mother, this article aims to discuss the writer’s position as a polyglot as well as a nomadic subject. In the representation offered by Durastanti, Italian culture and language do not prevail over other languages and cultures but interact with them, contributing to the creation of a new intersectional subjectivity.

The Metalinguistic Dimension of Literary Multilingualism: Linguistic Biographies in Italian Fiction

ABSTRACT In this article, I argue that a thorough analysis of literary multilingualism and code-switching needs to take their metalinguistic dimension into account. Many scholars have noticed multilingual authors’ tendency to frame code-switches with metalinguistic comments, but they are sometimes treated marginally, or as just one of the many functions of code-switching. My article argues that metalanguage is, in fact, a fundamental characteristic of literary multilingualism, and key to its interpretation. This is particularly evident when we look at how the contemporary Italian writers Laura Pariani, Silvana Grasso and Elena Ferrante construct their characters through linguistic biographies, and how they describe dialect use, bilingualism, language loss and shift and other collective and individual sociolinguistic processes. I also show that metalanguage needs to be analysed together with other tools used by authors to flag multilingualism: namely intratextual translations and peritextual elements (such as glossaries or notes), but also visual cues, such as italics.

BETWEEN PRESTIGE AND DEPRAVITY: OBSERVATIONS ON THE EARLY RECEPTION OF DANTE AND BOCCACCHIO IN BULGARIA (1878 – 1918)

The current study focuses on the presence of the Italian classic authors Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio in the period from the National Liberation to the end of World War I. The reception scope after the National Liberation is actually hard to trace and some surprising findings might appear on the horizon, especially regarding the scattered in periodicals texts. The published translated books are not indicative of the reception range during the analyzed period and they constitute only a small part of it. A large number of works by the most popular authors reached the Bulgarian audience through translations published in periodicals, textbooks and anthologies. Moreover, a lot of translated works did not appear in specialized philological publications, but in the literary sections and serials of daily newspapers. As early as the first decade after the Liberation, the classics missing from the Revival catalogue of translated literature started to appear. The Bulgarian reader became acquainted with the sporadic works of authors studied at school like Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Torquato Tasso, Ludovico Ariosto, Carlo Goldoni, Vittorio Alfieri, Giacomo Leopardi and Ugo Foscolo. In the defined period, the classic authors were not among the most influential translated Italian writers for the Bulgarian audience during the epoch. This is evidenced by the limited distribution of Konstantin Velichkov’s translation of Inferno, which managed to attract the interest of only a small circle of intellectuals. A main reception factor is the taste of the reading audience, which predominantly in the postliberation conditions still lacked structured esthetic criteria and preferred more common and comprehensible literature.

The Comedies of Alessandro Piccolomini: Searching for the Perfect Woman between Loving Initiative and Virtue

In theoretical works such as Orazione, Della institutione, and Raffaella, the Italian writer, scientist, and philogynist Alessandro Piccolomini (1508–78) outlines the characteristics that should make up the perfect woman. In his comedies—Alessandro and L’Amor costante—focusing mainly on the theme of love, Piccolomini presents some of the same ideas, articulating them through his noble and cultured female characters. This article examines Piccolomini’s dramatic productions in light of his treatises and other writings on women in order to underline his originality in the creation of these female characters. On the one hand, they are models of virtue and decorum; on the other, they demonstrate an unusual degree of initiative in love. They are conscious of their desires, and they defend their right to choose their lovers. In this way, Piccolomini describes new traits of the perfect woman.

Ironic Practices as Pedagogical Tools for Accomplishing Italo Calvino’s Lightness

This essay begins with the premise that Italo Calvino’s Memos serve as a fundamentally educational proposition. Each of his lectures can be regarded as a substantive proposal, encouraging a revaluation of our contemporary world through unconventional forms of knowledge, especially considering the challenges posed by the new millennium. The essay’s central objective is to further the intellectual movement initiated by Calvino, but with a specific focus on theorizing education. It aims not to simply apply Calvino’s principles and insights to education or provide a pedagogical analysis but rather to actively engage with them, fostering educational-philosophical reflections centred around the concept of “lightness”, as identified by the Italian writer. Key questions emerge from this exploration: How can “lightness” be considered an educational quality? Can it serve as a valuable guide for navigating the complexities of contemporary education? Can the notion of “lightness” inspire the creation of new pedagogical languages that resist the instrumentalizing tendencies in education? The essay proceeds to elucidate Calvino’s primary theses on “lightness” while also examining the potential for a productive dialogue between Calvino and Richard Rorty’s ideas on irony, both in public and private dimensions. It illustrates how ironic practices, such as sarcasm, satire, and wit, conveyed through artistic expressions, can embody the essence of “lightness” that Calvino encourages. Ultimately, the essay concludes by reflecting on the pedagogical implications of embracing “lightness” in education, particularly in the affirmative/post-critical and Arendtian sense, as a means of bequeathing a world that genuinely belongs to future generations.

Rereading “Danube” After Thirty Years. Bucharest in Claudio Magris’ Book

The article marks the anniversary, in 2024, of thirty years since the publication of the Romanian translation of the famous Danube (Milan, Garzanti, 1986) by Claudio Magris, which had immediately earned him the Bagutta Prize 1987, consecrating him among the highest contemporary Italian writers. The Romanian version was released in 1994 at the Univers publishing house in Bucharest in the “Spectrum” series, with the translation of the historian Adrian Niculescu, who was exiled to Italy in the 1980s. The proposed analysis is based on the presentation of the material concerning Romania within the literary work, as a premise of the speech on the Mitteleuropa versus the Europe of the South-East. Among the four historic Romanian regions, three can be identified as the main topics of the volume: Banat, Transylvania and Wallachia (Moldova is missing, as it does not concern the Danubian journey), with the mention that Banat and Transylvania are treated in a distinct chapter entitled Nonna Anka, while the other part of the Romanian territory, Wallachia, appears in the Matoas chapter. Claudio Magris’ literary image of Bucharest manages to configure the urban identity in its peculiarities deriving from the overlap of three different layers with paradigmatic value, corresponding to the main stages of its historical development.

From Italy to the Indian subcontinent: Dante and his Divine Comedy in Urdu

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) is one of the most important Italian writers, well-known for his magnum opus the Divine Comedy. This article investigates the Urduphone world's engagement with Dante from the late 19th century to the post-colonial period. As India was ruled by the British, English writers, specifically Shakespeare and Milton, were the most famous foreign literary figures in colonial India. Dante, even though he had no official patronage, also made his appearance in Urdu print culture and is frequently referred to by Urdu writers and critics. There are three distinct ways in which Dante is engaged with in Urdu. The first dimension concerns essays about Dante's life and work in Urdu periodicals, and this article will present an overview of these. Secondly, several full and partial translations of the Divine Comedy have been produced in Urdu. This dimension is particularly significant because of Dante's treatment of Prophet Mūḥammad in the Divine Comedy, and the article will attempt to highlight the strategies used by translators to deal with those passages. Finally, Dante has frequently been juxtaposed with Mūḥammad Iqbāl because of the similarities between the Divine Comedy and Javed Nama, both said to be modeled after the story of Miʿrāj in Islam. The article argues that this engagement with Dante in Urdu resulted due to the Divine Comedy's inspiration from Muslim sources, as claimed by the Spanish orientalist Miguel Asin Palacios in his book Islam and the Divine Comedy.

W lustrze przekładu. Translatorska biografia Cristiny Campo

The subject of this article is the translation work of the Italian writer Cristina Campo (born Vittoria Guerrini), one of the most prominent Italian writers of the 20th century, poet, translator, and essayist, analysed in a biographical key. The aim is to look more closely at Cristina Campo’s biography – described so far in the only biography book (De Stefano 2002), but also recorded in the voluminous correspondence the writer left behind – through the framework of her translation activity. Of interest from this point of view become both her translation choices and reading choices (“the lovely kinsmen of the shelf,” as the writer called her favourite books) – related to a large extent to Campo’s literary temperament, her experiences in her private life, and her friends – as well as her choice of translation activity itself, largely conditioned by the need to spend a large part of her life in seclusion due to the incurable heart disease that Campo suffered from since her birth. An attempt will be made to answer the question of how illness and other life circumstances influenced her choice of translation activity, the selection of texts to be translated and the translator’s actual working conditions.

Альберто Моравиа в СССР (по материалам РГАЛИ)

This publication presents some documents from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) regarding two trips to the USSR made by Alberto Moravia, one of thegreatest Italian writers of the 20th century, and his relationship with Georgij Breitburd, translator andconsultant on Italian literature at the Foreign Commission of the Union of Soviet Writers, one of thecrucial figures in Soviet-Italian cultural relations. Moravia, as an influential left-wing intellectual, was widely known and frequently published in the Soviet Union and was considered one of the “friends” of the USSR. The documents presented here are related to two of Moravia’s trips to the USSR in 1956 and 1972. These are reports on both trips written by Breitburd, who accompanied Moravia as an interpreter; a stenographic transcript of a lecture on contemporary Italian literature given by Moravia at Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow; and Moravia’s correspondence with Mikhail Apletin and Georgij Breitburd after the trip of 1956. These documents give us valuable information about the programs of Moravia’s visits and the issues discussed at formal events and informal meetings. They also tell us a lot about Soviet “hospitality techniques” and demonstrate how the work with Western intellectuals was organized. The documents published here are accompanied by a detailed commentary and an introduction, briefly summarizing the history of relations between Alberto Moravia and the USSR.

Альберто Моравиа в СССР (по материалам РГАЛИ)

This publication presents some documents from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) regarding two trips to the USSR made by Alberto Moravia, one of thegreatest Italian writers of the 20th century, and his relationship with Georgij Breitburd, translator andconsultant on Italian literature at the Foreign Commission of the Union of Soviet Writers, one of thecrucial figures in Soviet-Italian cultural relations. Moravia, as an influential left-wing intellectual, was widely known and frequently published in the Soviet Union and was considered one of the “friends” of the USSR. The documents presented here are related to two of Moravia’s trips to the USSR in 1956 and 1972. These are reports on both trips written by Breitburd, who accompanied Moravia as an interpreter; a stenographic transcript of a lecture on contemporary Italian literature given by Moravia at Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow; and Moravia’s correspondence with Mikhail Apletin and Georgij Breitburd after the trip of 1956. These documents give us valuable information about the programs of Moravia’s visits and the issues discussed at formal events and informal meetings. They also tell us a lot about Soviet “hospitality techniques” and demonstrate how the work with Western intellectuals was organized. The documents published here are accompanied by a detailed commentary and an introduction, briefly summarizing the history of relations between Alberto Moravia and the USSR.