Italian Poetry 1885 – 1950 E-Book

Dieter Hoffmann

• Herausgeber: LiteraturPlanet
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

In the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Italian poetry experienced an extraordinary heyday. In ten chapters, the present volume provides exemplary insights into this period. English adaptations of selected poems are followed by literary-historical classifications and interpretations against the background of the life and work of the poets concerned.

Leseprobe

Dieter Hoffmann

Italian Poetry 1885 – 1950

Giosuè Carducci – Giovanni Pascoli – Ada Negri – Eugenio Montale – Giuseppe Ungaretti – Salvatore Quasimodo – Mario Luzi – Antonia Pozzi – Cesare Pavese – Elsa Morante

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About this book: In the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Italian poetry experienced an extraordinary heyday. In ten chapters, the present volume provides exemplary insights into this period. English adaptations of selected poems are followed by literary-historical classifications and interpretations against the background of the life and work of the poets concerned.

Information about the author can be found on Wikipediaand on his blog rotherbaron.

Cover picture: Georgios Margaritis (1814 – 1884): Euterpe (the Muse of music and lyric poetry); Wikimedia Commons

Introduction

Motivation and Structure of the Study

Italian poetry experienced an extraordinary heyday at the end of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century. This is also reflected in the fact that three of the poets active during this period – Giosuè Carducci, Salvatore Quasimodo and Eugenio Montale – were awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and other Italian poets were long considered candidates for the prize.

Against this background, the present study casts a spotlight on Italian poetry of this period in ten chapters. Based on exemplary poems, the work of the poets in question is examined, taking into account biographical, poetological and historical aspects.

Of course, the selection is not arbitrary. The respective literary personalities have had a decisive influence on Italian poetry with their poetic and poetological works. In this way, the study can also provide an insight into trends in literary history.

However, an insight is not an overview. Otherwise, authors such as Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863 – 1938) or Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876 – 1944), whose work also had a significant impact on Italian literature in the first half of the 20th century, should not be missing. Yet both are omitted here due to their proximity to Italian fascism.

Omission of Trailblazers of Fascism: 1. Gabriele D'Annunzio

In 1914, Gabriele D'Annunzio was one of the most important supporters of the so-called "interventionists", who favoured Italy's entry into the First World War because they believed it would benefit their country. Far from confining himself to a background role, he made fervent speeches in favour of participation in the war.

During the war, in which D'Annunzio also took part himself, he wrote the Canti della guerra latina, in which he sang in pathetic poems about devotion to the fatherland, the glory of the fallen soldiers and the unifying hand of the king [1].

After the end of the war, D'Annunzio condemned the outcome of the peace negotiations, which he saw as unfair to Italy, with the catchphrase "vittoria mutilata" ("mutilated victory"). He did not stop at expressions of displeasure, though. Instead, D'Annunzio and a few followers occupied the Adriatic city of Fiume, now Rijeka in Croatia, and established an operetta-like rule there, which – with its cult of leadership, mass marches and symbolism based on ancient models – provided a kind of blueprint for the later Mussolini regime.

Omission of Trailblazers of Fascism: 2. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Like Gabriele D'Annunzio, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was an intellectual trailblazer for fascism in many respects.

Admittedly, the fact that his Futurist Manifesto, published in 1909, celebrates "the vibrant nocturnal glow of arsenals and shipyards illuminated by mighty electric moons", that it admires "the bridges that span the rivers like gigantic gymnasts" and sings of the insatiable "railway stations that swallow up smoking snakes" [2], can be understood as an exaggerated expression of the belief in technology and progress prevailing at the time. This certainly gave rise to artistic approaches that later proved to be productive even beyond Futurism.

However, Marinetti combines the celebration of technology, the fact that it overpowers and displaces old structures, with an internalisation of its inherent power. This leads him to openly advocate violence and aggression. The corresponding attitude is based on an image of masculinity that associates manliness with uncompromising toughness and rejects everything feminine as an expression of unnecessary empathy and caring – and thus as a weakness that hinders the path to a glorious future:

"We want to glorify war – the only hygiene in the world –, and praise militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of libertarians, the beautiful ideas for which people die, and the contempt for women."[3]

According to Marinetti, this attitude should also be the basis of art:

"There is no beauty except in battle. An artistic work that has no aggressive character cannot be a masterpiece."[4]

However, Marinetti did not want his convictions to have an effect only in the artistic field. As a staunch representative of the interventionists propagating Italy's entry into the war, he was already on Mussolini's side in 1914. Later on, he wanted to translate his views into practical politics by founding a Futurist Party. The programme of this political group was so close to fascism that Mussolini was able to integrate it seamlessly into his own party in 1919.

The Role of D'Annunzio and Marinetti in the Fascist State

The fact that D'Annunzio and Marinetti did not become central protagonists of fascist Italy is primarily due to their oversized egos. Both would have preferred to become Duce themselves and therefore criticised Mussolini out of offended vanity. However, they were opportunistic enough to make themselves at home in the palace of the fascist state once it had been established.

D'Annunzio was happy to be honoured as a national poet in fascist Italy and to be paid accordingly. He lived in a posh villa on Lake Garda, was ennobled by the king and celebrated fascist imperialism as an expression of the strength of the Italian nation.

As for Marinetti, he initially broke theatrically with fascism after having been relegated to the second rank by Mussolini. Shortly afterwards, however, when Mussolini's power had been established, he reconciled with the Duce and subsequently played a leading role in the Italian cultural policy of those years.

Marinetti's nationalist ideology, which glorified violence, thus became a second pillar of the official art doctrine of fascist Italy. While Marinetti's Futurist art propagated war as an expression of the dynamic, forward-moving modern man, the backward-looking style of the Novecento provided the intellectual legitimisation for this by celebrating Italy as the birthplace of the new world order established in the Renaissance.

Literary Positioning in the Face of Fascism

However, the Mussolini regime of course also had an impact on those poets who were not close to fascism.

Whoever wanted to write literature in Italy during the two decades of fascist rule – the so-called "Ventennio fascista" – had to take a stance towards fascism in some way. This was all the more true if the works were to be published.

The spectrum of reactions in the literary scene – as in Italian society in general – included open support for fascism, sympathisation, tacit tolerance and internal emigration, but also active participation in the Resistenza, i.e. the struggle against Mussolini's state and the later German occupation. This is also reflected in the poems in this volume.

Italian "ermetismo" and Hermetic Poetry in Other Countries

In this context, "ermetismo" is of particular importance. However, anyone concerned with this phenomen should be aware of two facts:

1.  Italian ermetismo is not congruent with hermetic poetry in other countries.

2.  The ermetismo is not a uniform movement. It unites a wide range of ways of dealing with fascism that are almost as diverse as those prevailing in Italian literature at the time in general.

The literary Hermeticism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was – as in the work of the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, for example – motivated primarily by linguistic scepticism. The aim here was to contrast the worn-out language of everyday life with an unspent linguistic world that would open up a new approach to the world.

In Germany, the hermetic poetry of the post-war period was a reaction to the catastrophe of the Second World War, in particular the Holocaust. Here – as in the poetry of Paul Celan – the linguistic demarcation was motivated by the endeavour to give rise to a poetry beyond fascism through a renewal of language.

Functions of Hermeticism in Fascist Italy

In Italy, Hermeticism appears as an attempt to ensure literary independence from the fascist state. "Independence" is not synonymous with "oppositional", though. Giuseppe Ungaretti, for example, had a positive attitude towards fascism, although his poetry, which tended towards the enigmatic, was anything but congruent with the official conception of art.

In contrast, Florentine Hermeticism, as represented by Mario Luzi among others, combined hermetic writing with the idea of creating a sort of antidote against the propagandistic language of the regime. Ermetismo therefore had a cathartic function here.

This function was not limited to language. Rather, it also opened up new spheres for free thought, which was thus able to regain spaces that had been buried under the regime's indoctrination machinery. For this, the poems even did not have to be directly critical of the regime. The mere stimulation of reflection and contemplation could act as an antidote to the poisonous paroles of propaganda.

In other cases – such as in the work of Eugenio Montale – the hermetic style of writing marked a conscious withdrawal from everyday life in fascist society. The poetry here therefore also had escapist tendencies.

This was also the case with Salvatore Quasimodo, whose early poetry is characterised by a nostalgic Hermeticism. Unlike Montale, however, he turned away from hermetic writing styles after the war and devoted himself to more committed forms of poetry.

About the English Adaptations of the Poems

Each language has its own logic. In every language, the dense network of associations that connects the individual terms with each other has a different structure.

Seemingly unambiguous translations evoke associations in another language that are only understood by those who are at home in that language. Words that seem neutral can have a pejorative or emphatic connotation in another language.

Finally, the tonal colours of the terms chosen for non-linguistic circumstances also differ in the respective languages. As a result, the immediate emotional effects of the individual terms and their possible combinations with other words also differ between the languages.

The pitfalls resulting from all this for a translation apply particularly to the field of poetry. The problem of the differently structured linguistic cosmos is further complicated here by the additional difficulty that poets play with language. In poetry, the given structures are not simply accepted and reproduced as such, but are remodelled in such a way that the altered linguistic structures enable a new view of reality.

The Logic of Poetic Translation

As far as hermetic poetry is concerned, these tendencies are even more pronounced, because this poetry consciously separates itself from everyday language and perception. In the case of a translation into another language, a literal reproduction of the original text is therefore even less possible and also less useful than in other cases.

Thus, in a way, every adaptation of a poem in another language results in a new poem – a poem, however, which aims to reproduce the unique nature of the respective poetic expression and the underlying thought and emotional complexes in a different language. Seen in this light, an adaptation of a poem in another language is actually also a kind of translation. But it follows the logic of poetry, for which other laws apply than for everyday language.

Nevertheless, the poetic expression found by a particular person at a particular time in a particular language for a particular mood is something unique that can never be adequately reproduced in another language.The English adaptations of the poems contained in this volume hence cannot and do not want to be more than signposts to the original texts, of whose poetic power they can at best convey a faint idea.

References

[1] D'Annunzio, Gabriele: Canti della guerra latina (1914 – 1918). Verona 1933: Mondadori.

[2] Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso: Il manifesto del futurismo (1909). In: Marinetti et al.: I manifesti del futurismo, pp. 3 – 10 (here page 7, no. 11). Florence 1914: Lacerba.

[3] Ibid., p. 6, no. 9.

[4] Ibid., no. 7.

The Janus-faced Fire of Autumn: Giosuè Carducci's Nature Poetry and His Socially Committed Early Work

The early work of Giosuè Carducci (1835 – 1907) is characterised by a socially and ecclesiastically critical stance. In his later years, however, he also wrote sensitive nature poetry – as evidenced by his poem San Martino.

Henri Duhem (1860 - 1941): Return of the Shepherd (late 19th century) Douai/Northern France, Musée de la Chartreuse (Carthusian Museum)

R. Borghi: Giosuè Carducci (around 1870)

Wikimedia commons

The Poem San Martino (Saint Martin)

Over the undulating hills

the mist scatters its damp sparks.

Foaming, the sea rears up

under the lash of the mistral.

The bitter smell of wine

laughs luringly through the village,

sowing inebriating oblivion

in the anchorless souls.

Whistling, the hunter tosses

the bleeding deer onto the wood fire.

Crackling, the meat sparkles

in the thorn bush of the flames.

Curling the rose pond of clouds,

black flocks of ravens drift along,

ephemeral fleets of thoughts

on the ghostly sea of the evening.

Giosuè Carducci: San Martino (1883)

from: Rime nuove (1887)

The Ecstatic Raid of Autumn

The poem San Martino is an example of the nature poetry Carducci wrote in his later years. It was originally entitled Autunno (Autumn), which perhaps fits better with the general evocation of an autumnal mood. The new title probably serves above all to point more strongly to late autumn – Saint Martin's name day is 11 November.

Carducci's verses evoke the autumnal raid of transience through various pairs of opposites. The sea of roses in the clouds – the last echo of life – is juxtaposed with the death-drunken thoughts of winter. Similarly, the shroud of fog and the howling sea are contrasted with the gifts of autumn – the wine and the game shot by the hunter.

In both cases, however, the gifts are of a Janus-faced nature, as they point either directly – through the killed animal – or indirectly – through the completed life cycle of the wine – to transience. The flames of bonfire and drunkenness also have their dark sides: Both serve to suppress a fate that can be briefly forgotten, but which nevertheless remains inevitable.

A Bridge between Carducci's Early and Late Works

The reference to the saint mentioned in the title of the poem occurs rather indirectly, notably through the mention of wine. As a component of the Eucharistic celebration, it brings to mind the foundation of a new, deeper community and the associated solidarity. This is also echoed in Martin of Tours' sharing of his cloak with the beggar, the iconic act that is regarded as the central symbol of this saint.

The allusion to the saint can also be understood as an echo of Carducci's early revolutionary work. In it, he had strongly criticised outdated social structures, for which he blamed above all the anti-enlightenment irrationalism of the official church. This became particularly clear in his poem A Satana (To Satan).

A Satanic Provocation

The hymn A Satana was first published in 1865. When the newspaper Il Popolo (The People) reprinted it four years later, this was a deliberate provocation – because at the same time, the First Vatican Council was opened in Rome.

If, however, the members of the Council had taken a closer look at the hymn – which of course they did not –, they could have realised that the author was by no means a Satanist. With his reference to Satan, Carducci was rather taking up the ideas of the Enlightenment and the thoughts of the early French socialists.

As God's adversary, Satan here initially stood for a free, critical thinking that refused to be constrained by the narrow corset of any kind of religious interpretation of the world. Accordingly, in Carducci's hymn A Satana, Satan is celebrated as the "victorious power of reason" ("forza vindice de la ragione") [1] – which is clearly reminiscent of the "Cult of Reason" at the beginning of the French Revolution.

Passionate Church Critic

At the same time, however, the revaluation of Satan in relation to the Christian God also contains a socially critical element. Together with the divine order, it also rejects what the ecclesiastical and secular nobility had proclaimed to be its worldly counterpart: the corporative society. This is contrasted with the original equality of all people.

This idea, which for example was emphasised by Michel Proudhon in Early Socialism [2], has, however, also been formulated several times by the ecclesiastical reform movements. With his invocation of Satan, Carducci therefore does not reject the Christian faith as such. What he criticises is rather the official church that has repeatedly nipped in the bud the various approaches to a fundamental reform.

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