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Italian Literature

Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may
also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in
Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian. Italian literature
begins in the 12th century when in different regions of the peninsula the Italian
vernacular started to be used in a literary manner. The Ritmo laurenziano is the
first extant document of Italian literature.

An early example of Italian literature is the tradition of vernacular lyric poetry

performed in Occitan, which reached Italy by the end of the 12th century. In 1230,
the Sicilian School is notable for being the first style in standard Italian. Dante
Alighieri, one of the greatest of Italian poets, is notable for his Divine Comedy.
Petrarch did classical research and wrote lyric poetry. Renaissance humanism
developed during the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. Humanists sought
to create a citizenry able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity. Early
humanists, such as Petrarch, were great collectors of antique manuscripts. Lorenzo
de Medici shows the influence of Florence on the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci
wrote a treatise on painting. The development of the drama in the 15th century was
very great. The fundamental characteristic of the era following Renaissance is that
it perfected the Italian character of its language. Niccolò Machiavelli and
Francesco Guicciardini were the chief originators of the science of history. Pietro
Bembo was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language and an
influence on the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch.

In 1690 the Academy of Arcadia was instituted with the goal of “restoring”
literature by imitating the simplicity of the ancient shepherds with sonnets,
madrigals, canzonette and blank verse. In the 17th century, some strong and
independent thinkers, such as Bernardino Telesio, Lucilio Vanini, Bruno and
Campanella turned philosophical inquiry into fresh channels, and opened the way
for the scientific conquests of Galileo Galilei, who is notable both for his scientific
discoveries and his writing. In the 18th century, the political condition of Italy
began to improve, and philosophers throughout Europe in the period known as The
Enlightenment. Apostolo Zeno and Metastasio are two of the notable figures of the
age. Carlo Goldoni, a Venetian, created the comedy of character. The leading
figure of the literary revival of the 18th century was Giuseppe Parini.

The ideas behind the French Revolution of 1789 gave a special direction to Italian
literature in the second half of the 18th century. Love of liberty and desire for
equality created a literature aimed at national object. Patriotism and classicism
were the two principles that inspired the literature that began with Vittorio Alfieri.
Other patriots included Vincenzo Monti and Ugo Foscolo. The romantic school
had as its organ the Conciliatore established in 1818 at Milan. The main instigator
of the reform was Alessandro Manzoni. The great poet of the age was Giacomo
Leopardi. History returned to its spirit of learned research. The literary movement
that preceded and was contemporary with the political revolution of 1848 may be
said to be represented by four writers – Giuseppe Giusti, Francesco Domenico
Guerrazzi, Vincenzo Gioberti and Cesare Balbo. After the Risorgimento, political
literature becomes less important. The first part of this period is characterized by
two divergent trends of literature that both opposed Romanticism, the Scapigliatura
and Verismo. Important early-20th-century writers include Italo Svevo and Luigi
Pirandello (winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature). Neorealism was
developed by Alberto Moravia. Umberto Eco became internationally successful
with the Medieval detective story Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose,
1980). The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Italian language authors
six times (as of 2019) with winners including Giosuè Carducci, Grazia Deledda,
Luigi Pirandello, Salvatore Quasimodo, Eugenio Montale and Dario Fo.
Early Medieval Latin Literature

A depiction of Boetius teaching his students (1385). Boetius, a 6th-century

Christian philosopher, helped keep alive the classic tradition in post-Roman Italy.

As the Western Roman Empire declined, the Latin tradition was kept alive by
writers such as Cassiodorus, Boethius, and Symmachus. The liberal arts flourished
at Ravenna under Theodoric, and the Gothic kings surrounded themselves with
masters of rhetoric and of grammar. Some lay schools remained in Italy, and noted
scholars included Magnus Felix Ennodius, Arator, Venantius Fortunatus, Felix the
Grammarian, Peter of Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia, and many others.

Italians who were interested in theology gravitated towards Paris. Those who
remained were typically attracted by the study of Roman law. This furthered the
later establishment of the medieval universities of Bologna, Padua, Vicenza,
Naples, Salerno, Modena and Parma. These helped to spread culture, and prepared
the ground in which the new vernacular literature developed. Classical traditions
did not disappear, and affection for the memory of Rome, a preoccupation with
politics, and a preference for practice over theory combined to influence the
development of Italian literature.

Women Writer
Italian women writers have always been underrepresented in academia. In many
collections of prominent and influential Italian literature, women's works are not
included. "A woman writer," Anna Banti once said, "even if successful, is
marginalized. They will say that she is great among women writers, but they will
not equate her to male writers."[34] There has been an increase in the inclusion of
women in academic scholarship in recent years, but representation is still
inequitable. Italian women writers were first acknowledged by critics in the 1960s,
and numerous feminist journals began in the 1970s, which increased readers'
accessibility to and awareness of their work.[35]
The work of Italian women writers is both progressive and penetrating; through
their explorations of the feminine psyche, their critiques of women's social and
economic position in Italy, and their depiction of the persistent struggle to achieve
equality in a "man's world," they have shattered traditional representations of
women in literature.[36] The page played an important role in the rise of Italian
feminism, as it provided women with a space to express their opinions freely, and
to portray their lives accurately. Reading and writing fiction became the easiest
way for women to explore and determine their place in society.[37]
Italian war novels, such as Alba de Céspedes's Dalla parte di lei (The Best of
Husbands, 1949), trace women's awakenings to political realities of the time.
Subsequent psychological and social novels of Italian women writers examine the
difficult process of growing up for women in Italian society and the other
challenges they face, including achieving a socially satisfactory life and using
intellectual aspirations to gain equality in society. Examples include Maria
Messina's La casa nel vicolo (A House in the Shadows, 1989) and Laura Di
Falco's Paura di giorno (Fear of the Day, 1954).[38] After the public
condemnation of women's abuse in Italian literature in the 1970s, women writers
began expressing their thoughts about sexual difference in novels. Many Italian
novels focus on facets of Italian identity, and women writers have always been
leaders in this genre.
 Most Famous Italian Writers
01 Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533)

Ludovico Ariosto is best known for his epic romance poem “Orlando Furioso.” He
was born in 1474. He’s also mentioned in the novelization of the video game
“Assasin’s Creed.” Ariosto is also said to have coined the term “Humanism.” The
goal of Humanism is to focus on man’s strength rather than their submission to a
Christian God. Renaissance Humanism came from Arisoto’s humanism.

02 Italo Calvino (1923-1985)

Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and author. One of his most famous novels
“If On a Winter’s Night A Traveller,” is a postmodern classic published in 1979.
The unique frame tale in the story sets it apart from other novels. It has been
included in the popular “1001 Books to Read Before You Die” list. Musicians such
as Sting have used the novel as inspiration for their albums. At the time of his
death in 1985, he was the most translated Italian author in the world.

03. General Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938)

General Gabriele D’Annuzio had one of the most fascinating lives of anyone on
this list. He was a renowned author and poet and a fierce soldier during World War
I. He was a part of the Decadent artistic movement and a student of Frederich
Nietzsche.

His first novel written in 1889 was titled “The Child of Pleasure.” Unfortunately,
the Generals literary achievements are often overshadowed by his political career.
D’Annuzio is credited with helping author the rise of fascism in Italy. He feuded
with Mussolini who used much of the author’s work to aide in his rise to power.
D’Annuzio even met with Mussolini and counseled him to leave Hitler and the
Axis Alliance.
04 Umberto Eco (1932-2016)

Umberto Eco is probably best known for his book “The Name of The Rose,”
published in 1980. The historical murder mystery novel combined the author's love
of literature and Semiotics, which is the study of communication. Eco was a
semiotician and a philosopher. Many of his stories dealt with themes of the
meaning and interpretation of communication. Along with being an accomplished
author, he was also a well-known literary critic and college professor.

05 Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873)

Alessandro Manzoni is most famous for his novel “The Betrothed” written in 1827.
The novel was seen as a patriotic symbol of Italian unification also known as
Risorgimento. It’s said that his novel helped to shape a new unified Italy. The book
is also seen as a masterpiece of world literature. It’s safe to say Italy wouldn’t be
Italy without this great novelist.

19 Notable Novels Penned by Italian Authors

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The award-winning debut album for Eco is a murder mystery combined with
biblical analysis, literary theory, medieval studies, and semiotics in fiction.

The 1980 novel was also turned into a movie featuring Sean Connery and Christian
Slater in 1986. A television series based on the novel has also been created this
year.

“The year is 1327. Benedictines in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy,
and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate
mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns
detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the
empirical insights of Roger Bacon—all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry
humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols
and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where ‘the
most interesting things happen at night.”

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Amazon describes the novel as, “Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the
spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the
approaching forces of democracy and revolution. The dramatic sweep and richness
of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the
grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty
and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time.”

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

 “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler turns out to be not one novel but ten, each with
a different plot, style, ambience, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of
suspense. Together they form a labyrinth of literatures, known and unknown, alive
and extinct, through which two readers, a male and a female, pursue both the story
lines that intrigue them and one another.”

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

“Written in the middle of the 14th century as the Bubonic Plague decimated the
population of Europe, “The Decameron” is a satirical and allegorical collection of
stories by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio. Constructed as a series of “frame
stories,” or stories within a story, the narrative follows seven young women and
three young men who take refuge in a secluded villa outside Florence in order to
escape the Black Death. During ten evenings of their stay, each of travelers takes
turns as storyteller to pass the time. Their stories relate tales of love, both happy
and tragic, examples of the power of fortune and human will, and exhibitions of
virtue, cleverness, and trickery. Boccaccio’s work is not only important for its
superb literary quality but for its examination of the changing cultural values that
defined the transition from medieval times into the renaissance. The virtues of
intelligence and sophistication of the increasingly urbanized and mercantilist
Europe are shown as superior to the relative simplicity and piousness of the feudal
system. More than the sum of its parts, The Decameronis a milestone in the history
of European literature, an influential and enduring masterpiece.”

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Amazon describes the book as, “In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the
young Marco Polo — Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has
sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories
of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities
and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities,
hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic
places are more than they appear.”

Zeno’s Conscience by Italo Svevo

 “Long hailed as a seminal work of modernism in the tradition of Joyce and Kafka,
and now available in a supple new English translation, Italo Svevo’s charming and
splendidly idiosyncratic novel conducts readers deep into one hilariously
hyperactive and endlessly self-deluding mind. The mind in question belongs to
Zeno Cosini, a neurotic Italian businessman who is writing his confessions at the
behest of his psychiatrist. Here are Zeno’s interminable attempts to quit smoking,
his courtship of the beautiful yet unresponsive Ada, his unexpected–and
unexpectedly happy–marriage to Ada’s homely sister Augusta, and his affair with
a shrill-voiced aspiring singer. Relating these misadventures with wry wit and a
perspicacity at once unblinking and compassionate, Zeno’s Conscience is a miracle
of psychological realism.”

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni

 “Considered one of the most important and widely read novels ever written in the
Italian language, The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) is Alessandro Manzoni’s 1827
historical novel, which details the terribly oppressive rule of the Spanish over Italy
in the early 1600s. At the center of the novel is the story of two young lovers,
Renzo and Lucia, whose marriage is forbidden by the local baron, who wishes to
wed the lovely Lucia himself. Forced to flee their homes, Renzo and Lucia are
separated and must struggle against the ravages of war, famine, and the plague to
be reunited again. While in essence a simple and affecting love story, The
Betrothed is also a fascinating and detailed glimpse into a dramatic and tumultuous
period in Italy’s history. Famed for its depiction of young love, devotion, and
fidelity, the novel is also noted for its incredibly realistic depictions of the real-life
plague that ravaged Milan, as well as the subsequent bread shortages and violent
unrest. Manzoni’s The Betrothed is an epic Italian masterpiece.”

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

This “whimsical, imaginative story about life in the trees” surrounds “Cosimo, a
young Italian nobleman of the eighteenth century, rebels against parental authority
by climbing into the trees and remaining there for the rest of his life. He adapts
efficiently to an arboreal existence – hunts, sows crops, plays games with earth-
bound friends, fights forest fires, solves engineering problems, and even manages
to have love affairs. From his perch in the trees, Cosimo sees the age of Voltaire
pass by and a new century dawn.”
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco

“Bored with their work, and after reading too many manuscripts about occult
conspiracy theories, three vanity publisher employees (Belbo, Diotallevi and
Casaubon) invent their own conspiracy for fun. They call this satirical intellectual
game “The Plan,” a hoax that connects the medieval Knights Templar with other
occult groups from ancient to modern times. This produces a map indicating the
geographical point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled—a
point located in Paris, France, at Foucault’s Pendulum. But in a fateful turn the
joke becomes all too real.

The three become increasingly obsessed with The Plan, and sometimes forget that
it’s just a game. Worse still, other conspiracy theorists learn about The Plan, and
take it seriously. Belbo finds himself the target of a real secret society that believes
he possesses the key to the lost treasure of the Knights Templar.”

The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello

“Mattia Pascal endures a life of drudgery in a provincial town. Then,
providentially, he discovers that he has been declared dead. Realizing he has a
chance to start over, to do it right this time, he moves to a new city, adopts a new
name, and a new course of life—only to find that this new existence is as
insufferable as the old one. But when he returns to the world he left behind, it’s too
late: his job is gone, his wife has remarried. Mattia Pascal’s fate is to live on as the
ghost of the man he was.”

The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati

“Often likened to Kafka’s The Castle, The Tartar Steppe is both a scathing critique
of military life and a meditation on the human thirst for glory. It tells of young
Giovanni Drogo, who is posted to a distant fort overlooking the vast Tartar steppe.
Although not intending to stay, Giovanni suddenly finds that years have passed, as,
almost without his noticing, he has come to share the others’ wait for a foreign
invasion that never happens. Over time the fort is downgraded and Giovanni’s
ambitions fade until the day the enemy begins massing on the desolate steppe…”

The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia

“A man is shot dead as he runs to catch the bus in the piazza of a small Sicilian
town. Captain Bellodi, the detective on the case, is new to his job and determined
to prove himself. Bellodi suspects the Mafia, and his suspicions grow when he
finds himself up against an apparently unbreachable wall of silence. A surprise turn
puts him on the track of a series of nasty crimes. But all the while Bellodi’s
investigation is being carefully monitored by a host of observers, near and far.
They share a single concern: to keep the truth from coming out.”

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

This list could not be complete without the beloved and most famous Italian
children’s novel that that was created into an animated Disney classic in 1940.

Amazon describes Carlo Collodi’s original version as “Carlo Collodi’s original

version, is an adventure-filled, menacing fairy tale with a moral. Made by the
woodcarver Geppetto, the puppet Pinocchio dreams of becoming a real child. But
his unrestrained curiosity, dishonesty, and selfishness put him in constant peril. As
he journeys from the deceptive ‘Field of Miracles,’ where he plants gold coins to
make them grow, to the land where lazy boys turn into donkeys, Pinocchio’s path
is paved with mistakes, willfulness, and danger. And all the while his nose keeps
growing bigger and bigger and bigger every time he tells a fib, so all the world can
see what a liar he is…”

Sostiene Pereira by Antonio Tabucchi

This novel was also adapted for the big screen in 1995 called According to Pereira.
The movie was filmed in Italian and released in the United States three years later.

“Lisbon, 1938. In a Europe haunted by the ghost of totalitarianism, a journalist

who has been dedicated to the news pages all his life is put in charge of the culture
section of a mediocre newspaper. In need of a collaborator, he calls the young man
Monteiro Rossi. The intense relationships that build between Monteiro, the elderly
journalist and Monteiros girlfriend Marta result in a personal crisis, inner growth
and a painful dose of conscience that profoundly change Pereiras life.”

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Georgio Bassani

This classic Italian drama was adapted into an Academy Award winning movie in
1970. The movie was recorded in Italian as the original novel was written.

“A richly evocative and nostalgic depiction of prewar Italy. The narrator, a young
middle-class Jew in the Italian city of Ferrara, has long been fascinated from afar
by the Finzi-Continis, a wealthy and aristocratic Jewish family, and especially by
their charming daughter Micol. But it is not until 1938 that he is invited behind the
walls of their lavish estate, as local Jews begin to gather there to avoid the racial
laws of the Fascists, and the garden of the Finzi-Continis becomes a sort of idyllic
sanctuary in an increasingly brutal world. Years later after the war, the narrator
returns in memory to his doomed relationship with the lovely Micol, and to the
predicament that faced all the Ferrarese Jews, in this unforgettably wrenching
portrait of a community about to be destroyed by the world outside the garden
walls.”

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

This pseudonymous author has penned four mega-popular Neopolitan novels that
explore the complicated intensity of female friendship. My Brilliant Friendis the
first of the series, as well as the first to be adapted to the small screen. In 2018,
HBO released the eight-episode drama series that was filmed in Italian.

“The story begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts
of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets, the two girls learn to rely on each
other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow – and as their paths
repeatedly diverge and converge – Elena and Lila remain best friends whose
respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the
embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of
these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country
as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between
her protagonists.”

Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year by Carlo Levi

The novel published in 1945 was adapted into an engaging and immersive
historical drama film over three decades later in 1979. The film was also shot on
location in the region where the novel is set in the Italian language.

“It was to Lucania, a desolate land in southern Italy, that Carlo Levi―a doctor,
painter, philosopher, and man of letters―was confined as a political prisoner
because of his opposition to Italy’s Fascist government at the start of the Ethiopian
war in 1935. While there, Levi reflected on the harsh landscape and its inhabitants,
peasants who lived the same lives their ancestors had, constantly fearing black
magic and the near presence of death. In so doing, Levi offered a starkly beautiful
and moving account of a place and a people living outside the boundaries of
progress and time.”

The Shape of Water (Inspector Montalbano, #1) by Andrea

Camilleri
Not to be confused with the drama/thriller film with the same title released in 2017,
this novel is first in this author’s wry, brilliantly compelling Sicilian crime series
featuring Inspector Montalbano. Even though the book was first published in
Italian, The New York Times Book Review said Andrea Camilleri’s “savagely
funny police procedural proves that sardonic laughter is a sound that translates ever
so smoothly into English.”

“Silvio Lupanello, a big-shot in Vigàta, is found dead in his car with his pants
around his knees. The car happens to be parked in a part of town used by
prostitutes and drug dealers, and as the news of his death spreads, the rumors
begin. Enter Inspector Salvo Montalbano, Vigàta’s most respected detective. With
his characteristic mix of humor, cynicism, compassion, and love of good food,
Montalbano battles against the powerful and corrupt who are determined to block
his path to the real killer.”

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi

Amazon said, “The Periodic Table is largely a memoir of the years before and after
Primo Levi’s transportation from his native Italy to Auschwitz as an anti-Facist
partisan and a Jew.

It recounts, in clear, precise, unfailingly beautiful prose, the story of the

Piedmontese Jewish community from which Levi came, of his years as a student
and young chemist at the inception of the Second World War, and of his
investigations into the nature of the material world. As such, it provides crucial
links and backgrounds, both personal and intellectual, in the tremendous project of
remembrance that is Levi’s gift to posterity. But far from being a prologue to his
experience of the Holocaust, Levi’s masterpiece represents his most impassioned
response to the events that engulfed him.

The Periodic Table celebrates the pleasures of love and friendship and the search
for meaning, and stands as a monument to those things in us that are capable of
resisting and enduring in the face of tyranny.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_literature#:~:text=It%20may%20also%20refer%20to,used%20in
%20a%20literary%20manner.
https://www.thoughtco.com/classic-italian-writers-4132346
https://orderisda.org/culture/literature/19-notable-novels-penned-by-italian-authors/