Contemporary Literature

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE The works produced during the present century are charac terized by a spirit of daring, restlessness and youth; by intellec tual curiosity, love of novel experiments and experiences, and above all by self-analysis. Writers aimed at the discovery of new forms of expression to supersede the old ; thus, the Futurists were of service to the new literature, if only by reason of their attempt to break down inherited and stereotyped traditions in prose and verse. Prose underwent a remarkable change. It became crisper and at the same time more flexible, while language attained the unity long since advocated by Manzoni.

Fresh interest was awakened in the most varied forms of crit icism, in history, culture and philosophy of all times and in all countries. In this eclectic tendency Renato Serra, a young and promising critic who was killed in the War, saw the beginnings of a new form of classicism. Interest in foreign literatures, in cluding those of the East as well as of the West, produced a vast library of translations varying in quality, but on the whole show ing a marked tendency towards treating translation as an art.

Fiction.

Although strictly belonging to the preceding genera tion, Carlo Dossi (1847-191o) did not receive due recognition until after his death. By his harsh and elliptical style and his original and vivid treatment of his subject matter, he opened out new paths to his successors. Of an entirely different character is the work of Alfredo Panzini (1863-1939) one of Carducci's pupils. Possessing a quiet sense of humour tinged with irony, his attitude towards life is detached but not aloof. In what are gen erally considered to be his masterpieces Le Fiabe della Virtii (1905), La Lanterna di Diogene (1909), Panzini is acutely sensi tive to all forms of beauty and to the conflict between them and the evils and uglinesses of the world. It is worthy of notice that most of the novelists, dramatists and critics of today—men and women—have tried their hand at the short story of the magazine type. Of these are A. Albertazzi (1865-1924), Luciano Zuccoli (187o-1929), Virgilio Brocchi (1876– ), Antonio Beltramelli (188o-193o), Guido da Verona (1881– ) and Ugo Ojetti (1871– ) who is also an art critic and a polished essayist (Cose viste), and among the women writers Clarice Tartufari (187o ), Sibilla Aleramo (1879– ), Neera (1846-1916), Amalia Guglielminetti (1885– ) and Carola Prosperi (1883– ). Recent Developments.—A rebellious and combative group of young men showed their activity, during the first years of the loth century, mainly by uncompromising attacks on all estab lished reputations. This group is known as "Gruppo della Voce," from the periodical of that name founded by Giovanni Papini and Giuseppe Prezzolini about 1909, itself the offspring of an earlier review— // Leonardo (19o3–o7), which gave a great impulse to philosophical studies. Not all of the contributors were of equal merit, but they showed the presence of a new spirit and vitality much needed, and exerted an influence as far-reaching as it was important and often superior to their individual achievements. Papini (b. 1880, however, is the only one who is at all known outside Italy mainly on account of the much-advertised Storia di Cristo (1921), a work which has added little to a reputation really founded upon his autobiography, Un uomo finito (1912), Cento pagine di Poesia (1915), and the brilliant, provocative, and at times superficial critical essays Stroncature (1916). Giuseppe Prezzolini also wrote some excellent critical essays, mostly on his contemporaries; for a time he abandoned literature and philos ophy for politics. Of the other principal contributors to La Voce, Scipio Slataper (1888-1915), a Triestino killed in the War, is best known for his noteworthy lyrical autobiography in prose, 11 mio Carso (1912) and a suggestive study on Ibsen published post humously (1916).

Ardengo Soffici's (b. 1879) best writings are a fragment of a novel, Lemmonio Boreo (1912), two autobiographical journals, Giornale di Bordo (1915) and Kobilek (1918), and the art criti cism in 11 caso Medardo Rosso e l'Impressionismo (1909) and Scoperte e massacri (1919). Soffici as a writer is both thoughtful and forceful and uses language impressionistically, frequently in troducing exact and unexpected similes. Serra was one of the most promising of the younger writers, and is best known for his re markable psychological document, the Esame di coscienza di un letterato (1916), in which he examines the attitude of an artist and an intellectual towards the War with great acuteness. Several other writers, such as Federigo Tozzi (1883-192o), Ferdinando Paolieri (1878-1928), Bruno Cicognani (1879– ) and Piero Jahier (1884– ), also have points of contact, in spirit and in style, with the Florence group. And other journalistic and literary coteries, in Rome and elsewhere, brought into notice essayists, such as E. Cecchi (1884– ), one of the most polished writers of the day, A. Baldini (1889– ) and R. Bacchelli (1891– ) who was to make his mark as a novelist.

Other more extreme innovators were led by F. T. Marinetti (1876– ) and called themselves Futurists. In the first Futurist manifesto published in 1909 Marinetti announced the new aes thetic of the machine, considered as symbol, source and teacher of a new artistic sensibility, and preached the beauty of speed. Apart from its sensationalism and self-advertisement and its prin ciples of destructiveness, Futurism none the less acted as an irri tant and forced writers, and particularly poets, to react against stagnation and to define poetry anew and the difference between it and prose. With the possible exception of some of Marinetti's and L. Folgore's (b. 1888) works, and Palazzeschi's (b. 1885) booklet of free verse L'incendiario, their literary contributions were of scant significance.

Poets and Playwrights.

The poetic output was not very plentiful or attractive. Besides belated imitators of Carducci and D'Annunzio, there were poets such as M. Moretti (b. 1885), En rico Pea (b. 1881), Amalia Giuglielminetti (b. 1889), who gave evidence at first of technical skill and lyrical vein which has since degenerated into affectation and mannerisms. The Piedmontese

G. Gozzano (1883-1916) and the Neopolitan F. Gaeta (d. 1927) came nearest to the expression of contemporary feeling in a style • free from all conventionalities.

There have been since D'Annunzio some successful attempts at poetic drama such as Benelli's historical tragedies Maschera di Bruto (1909) and Cena delle Beffe (1909), written in effective blank verse. Some of the other playwrights like Dario Nicodemi have portrayed society life, according to the formula derived from the French dramatists. Others have written light comedies or dramas in dialect. Many of these are very charming and well con structed, especially the Florentine ones, L'acqua cheta (1908) by Augusto Novelli and I'Pateracchio (1910) by F. Paolieri. Some notable plays of the grand-guignol type have been written in Nea politan dialect by Salvatore di Giacomo (Assunta Spina and 0' Mese Mariano, 191o), Ernesto Murolo and Roberto Bracco, and in Sicilian, by Pirandello (Liola, 1917). The fame of Roberto Bracco as a dramatist rests, however, on Piccola Fonte (1905) and Piccolo Santo (1912). Most of his plays present psychological and spiritual tragedies with hardly any external action, and are pronouncedly feminist in sympathies.

The essential difference between Bracco and Pirandello is that one is intellectual, the other cerebral. In Pirandello (q.v.) the dramatic form is a natural step from the novel and the short stories, in which the characters are dramatis personae always talk ing among themselves but unable to make each understood to the other, until they begin to doubt whether they really exist and are not shadowy forms conjured up by the imagination of those among whom they live and by which they are bound. The dra matic situations arise out of the contrast between what the in dividual is, what he conceives himself to be and what others think him.

Next to Pirandello, Rosso di San Secondo (b. 1887), a Sicilian known also for his short stories, and Federico Valerio Ratti, author of a remarkable tragedy on Judas Iscariot, are the most promising dramatists. Luigi Chiarelli's play, La Maschera e it V olto (1917), presents in light comedy form many of Pirandello's ideas.

Criticism and History.

Among the older idealist—though not Crocean—critics, Arturo Farinelli, author of Il Romanticismo in Germania (i9ii), Il Romanticismo nel mondo latino (T927), and several other valuable works ; C. de Lollis, and A. Galletti, who succeeded Pascoli in the chair of Italian literature at the Univer sity of Bologna and to whom he has devoted a brilliant critical study, are the most important. To these three university profes sors should be added the name of a younger man—G. Toffanin (1891– )—who has already given several proofs of originality and scholarship of a high order. The work of the militant critics is represented by Thovez's essays 11 Pastore it gregge e la zampogna (Iwo) and Mimi del Moderno (1919); by Renato Serra's Scritti critici (1910), and Le Lettere (1914), a brilliant survey of con temporary literature and its characteristics, as well as by the criti cal writings of Papini and G. A. Borgese (b. 1882) who, besides the Storia della critica romantics in Italia (1903) has also written Rube (1921), an interesting autobiographical novel. Borgese is a regular contributor to the daily press, for which write also R.

Simoni, a playwright, A. Tilgher (1887– ), a philosopher, F.

Palazzi (1885– ) and G. Zucca, novelists.

Historians no less than critics have felt the Crocean influence. Croce has himself written many historical works, including the Storks di Napoli (1926) and the Storia d'Italia dal 187o al 1915 (1928) ; and the modern tendencies in historical studies are well represented in the works of R. Caggese, G. Volpe and a few others.

A general improvement in prose style has been one of the most striking features of the 2oth century literature; there are now numbers of young men who write with an easy grace that was un common if not inexistent in earlier days. A lively controversy has recently begun. Massimo Bontempelli presided over a group of writers, among whom were 0. Vergani and A. Campanile, who called themselves "novecentisti" and wished to give Italian litera ture a fanciful and cosmopolitan tone; against them a twofold re action is taking place led by the "strapaesisti" who wish for a sim ple and direct form of art, and the traditionalists who advocate a return to Italian classicism. Among these opponents of "nove centismo" are Curzio Malaparte (1898– ), G. B. Angioletti and R. Bacchelli, who has written a remarkable novel, Il diavolo al Pontelungo (1927). (A. DEL R. ; C. F.) history of Italian literature written by F. de Sanctis in 187o and several times reprinted is still the best aesthetic account of the subject. English readers are referred to J. A. Symonds's Renaissance in Italy, especially but not exclusively vols. iv. and v. German works of note are Gaspary's history of Italian literature up to the 14th century (1884-89 ; Eng. trans., only to the death of Dante, 1901), and Casini's contribution in Groeber's Grundr. d. rom. Philologie (Strasbourg, 1896-99). A useful summary is Hauvette's Histoire de la lit. ital. (1913). Of fundamental importance are the two elaborate series:—Storia della letteratura italiana scritta da una societa di professori (Milan, 190o sqq., II vols., each with a complete bibliography), and Storia dei generi letterari (Milan, 1902 sqq.), of which only ten volumes have been published so far. Excellent biblio graphical notes are to be read in D'Ancona e Bacci, Manuale della letteratura italiana (Florence, new ed., 192o, 6 vols.). For the later period see B. Croce, La letteratura della nuova Italia (Bari, 1914) and the series of Guide bibliografiche published by the Istituto Leonardo (Rome, 1919 sqq.), of which 3o numbers have so far appeared. A select bibliography also appears in C. Foligno, Italian Literature 1920) .