Italy Literature

The Romans stole their religion and mythology from anyone and everyone. Though much Roman folklore comes from their own early traditions and Etruscan beliefs, much more of their mythology is a filtered form of Greek mythology. It is important to remember that Greek civilization across the Mediterranean flourished centuries before Rome. When Greek poets were reciting the Odyssey and Iliad, Rome was still an obscure farming village. During the last two centuries of the Roman Republic, roughly the last two centuries BC, interaction between the Greeks and Romans increased because the Romans were conquering the Greeks. When they were not forcing the city-states into submission, they took the time to embrace the Greek mythological system in the form of beautiful poems typically depicting lustful and petty gods. Until this time, the Romans had relied only on boring and ambiguous agricultural gods, as well as the famous story of Romulus and Remus .

Latin Lovers

Et In Arcadia Ego. As they gained dominance over the Hellenized Mediterranean, the Romans discovered the refined joys of literature. Plautus (c. 259-184 BC) and Terrence (d. 159 BC), for example, adapted Greek comedies into Latin while giving them their own Roman flair. The lyric, though occasionally obscene, poetry of Catullus (84-54 BC) demonstrates the complex relationship between Greece and Rome. Cicero (106-43 BC), a fiery and complicated Roman politician, orator, and author, whose prose has been central to Latin education since ancient times, is the definitive example of classical Latin. History buffs should check out the writing of Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), who gave a first-hand account of the expansion of Rome’s empire in his Gallic Wars.

When In Rome. As a result of Augustus’s patronage and the relative peace and prosperity of the time, Augustan Rome produced an array of literary talents. Livy (c. 59 BC-AD 17) wrote a mammoth history of Rome from the city’s founding to his own time in Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City). Coining the phrase carpe diem, Horace (65-8 BC) wrote on love, wine, service to the state, hostile critics, and the pleasure of pastoral life in his Odes. Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) gave the world the Metamorphoses, a beautiful and sometimes racy collection of poetry. For unknown reasons, he angered Augustus so much that he was eventually exiled to modern-day Romania where he eventually died a broken man. Suetonius’s (c. AD 69-130) De Vita Caesarum presents tabloid biographies of the first twelve Emperors, and Tacitus’s (c. AD 55-116) Histories offers a biting synopsis of Roman war, diplomacy, scandal, and rumor during AD 69, the year of notorious Emperor Nero’s death. It is widely considered stylistically the greatest work of history in Latin.

Dark Ages To Cultural Rebirth

Dark Times. Between classical antiquity and the Renaissance, authors usually remained anonymous, with the exception of notable religious figures like St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74). By the 13th century, Christianity had become the uniting factor of much of chaotic Europe. While this religious zeal was sometimes oppressive, it also ensured the survival of ancient texts and ideas, since monks of this period typically spent their days and nights copying ancient texts. Despite this tendency to preserve ancient thoughts, writers of the Dark Ages also began using a degraded form of Latin. Adding to this evolution of literature were troubadour songs (usually detailing romance at court) and Carolingian and Arthurian adventure stories which developed at the intersection of northern Italy, southern France, and northern Spain. These served as models for the medieval verses delivered by singers and poets who traveled throughout Europe. The invasion of Norman and Arab rulers into Sicily and southern Italy (1091-1224) also introduced diverse literary traditions.

Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here! Although the tumult of medieval life discouraged most literary musing in the late 13th century, three Tuscan writers, known as the Tre Corone (Three Crowns), resuscitated the written art: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio . Although scholars do not agree on the precise dates of the literary Renaissance, many argue that the work of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) marked its inception. Considered the father of modern Italian literature, Dante was one of the first poets in all of Europe to write using the volgare (common vernacular; Florentine, in Dante’s case) instead of Latin. In his epic poem La Divina Commedia, he roams the three realms of the afterlife (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) with Virgil as his guide, meeting famous historical and mythological figures and his true love, Beatrice. In the work, Dante calls for social reform and indicts all those who contributed to Florence’s moral downfall, including Popes and political figures—especially those who ordered his own political exile. Petrarch (1304-74), the second titan of the 13th century, more clearly belongs to the literary Renaissance. A scholar of classical Latin and a key proponent of humanist thought, he wrote sonnets to a married woman named Laura, collected in Il Canzoniere. The third member of this literary triumvirate, Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75), wrote the Decameron, a collection of 100 stories that range in tone from suggestive to vulgar. In one, a gardener has his way with an entire convent.

Renaissance Men. The 14th century saw the rise of la Commedia dell’Arte , a form of improvised theater with a standard plot structure and characters. Each character had its own mask and costume and a few fixed personality traits. The most famous character, Arlecchino (Harlequin), was easily identified by his diamond-patterned costume. By the 15th and 16th centuries, Italian authors were reviving classical sources in new ways. Alberti (1404-72) and Palladio (1508-80) wrote treatises on architecture and art theory. In 1528 Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) wrote Il Cortegiano, which instructed the Renaissance man on etiquette and other fine points of behavior. At the pinnacle of the Renaissance, Ludovico Ariosto’s (1474-1533) Orlando Furioso (1516) described a whirlwind of military victories and unrequited love, and Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote Il Principe (The Prince), a grim assessment of what it takes to gain political power. In the spirit of the Renaissance, specialists in other fields tried writing: Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) stopped redecorating Florence’s churches to produce the ultimate primer on art history and criticism, The Lives of the Artists; Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) wrote about his art in The Autobiography; and Michelangelo (1475-1564) proved to be a prolific composer of sonnets.

Modern Times

The 19th century brought Italian unification and the need for one language. Nationalistic “Italian” literature, an entirely new concept, grew slowly. Racconti (short stories) and poetry became popular in the 1800s. Giovanni Verga’s (1840-1922) brutally honest depiction of destitute Italians ushered in a new tradition of portraying the common man in art and literature, a movement known as verismo (contemporary, all-too-tragic realism). In 1825, Alessandro Manzoni’s (1785-1873) historical novel, I Promessi sposi, established the Modernist novel as a major avenue of Italian literary expression. Carlo Collodi’s (1826-1890) Storia di un burattino (Adventures of a Marionette), also called Le avventure di Pinocchio, continues to enchant children, now in its innocuous Disney classic format, with the precocious and sometimes diabolic antics of a puppet.

Postmodernism. Twentieth-century Italian writers sought to undermine the concept of objective truth that was so dear to the verismo movement. Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) deconstructed theatrical convention and explored meta-theater in works like Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore ( Six Characters in Search of an Author, 1921). During the terror of Mussolini, anti-fascist fiction exploded as writers related their horrific personal and political experiences under the dictator. The most prolific of these writers, Alberto Moravia (1907-90), wrote the ground-breaking Gli indifferenti ( The Time of Indifference ), which was promptly censored for its subtle attacks on the fascist regime. Primo Levi (1919-87) wrote Se questo è un uomo (1947) about his experience as a prisoner in Auschwitz. Several female writers also gained popularity, including Grazia Deledda (1875-1936), Elsa Morante (1912-85), and Natalia Ginzburg (1916-91). Writers such as Cesare Pavese (1908-50) and Beppe Fenoglio (1922-63) brought the cinematic trend of neorealismo to the novel. Italo Calvino (1923-85) exemplified the postmodern era with the magic realism of Il barone rampante ( The Baron in the Trees, 1957) and by questioning the act of reading and writing in Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore ( If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler, 1979). In 1997, playwright Dario Fo’s (b. 1926) satires brought him both a denunciation by the Catholic Church and the Nobel Prize for literature.

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