Vol.13 No.4 1946 - page 505

Variety
Arcadia in Italy
F
ASCISM DID
not have a very
great direct influence on Ita–
lian literature. Some attempts were
made to create a sort of "official
literature," but all these attempts
failed. It was even proposed from
various sources that the Fascist
poets use Mussolini's "achieve–
ments" as the subject of a new
heroic epic. But there were no
poets. Italian writers, or at least
many of them, limited their hom–
age to tyranny to an external con–
sent. Giuseppe Ungaretti, called
Italy's best poet, dedicated to Mus–
solini a collection of poetry of the
most crepuscular and least "heroic"
nature one could possibly imagine.
Nor was there in Italy an anti–
Semitic literature worthy of that
name. As a matter of fact there
was nothing at all. The weight of
Fascist oppression on literature in
Italy was of a much more subtle
nature. It forced Italian literature
ever more into its tight circle of
insincerity, rhetoric, and virtuosity.
Blessed be the hand that opens a
window in this stifling room.
'---PRINTS
· · · · · · ·
We stock every fine colored repro–
duction published and available today
Old Masters, Modern and
Contemporaries
Send for Illustrated Catalog
OESTREICHER'S
1208 6th Ave.. (Dept. H), N.Y. 19, N.Y.
(Bet. 47th-48th Sts.) BR. 9· 7443
,_
Italian literature does not re–
semble any other literature. It is
in a world all of its own, far from
reality, disparaging of human
values, tied to the patterns of an
external Arcadia. A comma is more
important than an idea. Well–
turned phrases are what count. The
abyss between authors and the
public has become incredibly great.
The war, so ruinously lost, and
the war of liberation which was the
redemption of Italian youth, all
this brought forth only rhetorical
compositions in which could be
found, at most, a bad imitation of
certain French models which were
"Literary criticism of a very high
order."-THE CHICAGO SUN
CHRISTOPHER
MARLOWE
A Study of His Thought,
Learning, and Character
A highly controversial book about one of
literature's most vivid personalities who
was also a major motivating force in the
development of English letters; brilliantly
written by an authority on Marlowe.
PAUL H. KOCHER
At all bookstores, $3.50
THE UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA
399...,495,496,497,498,499,500,501,502,503,504 506,507,508,509,510,511,512,513,514
Powered by FlippingBook