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  • 标题:Roberto Salsano, Avanguardia e tradizione.
  • 作者:Daly, Selena
  • 期刊名称:Annali d'Italianistica
  • 印刷版ISSN:0741-7527
  • 出版年度:2009
  • 期号:January
  • 语种:English
  • 出版社:Annali d'Italianistica, Inc.
  • 摘要:Mario Verdone is best known as a critic of the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, especially Futurism. While not ignoring this aspect of his career, Salsano's primary concern is to redress the lack of attention paid to Verdone's literary works, which include prose, poetry, theatre, and radio plays. Thus, the book is divided into two sections: the first dealing with Verdone, the author, and the second with Verdone, the critic. The book begins with a short note by Verdone himself, in which he describes his career as a critic and a writer, identifying his first meeting with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1935 as "l'incontro fatale" (9).
  • 关键词:Books

Roberto Salsano, Avanguardia e tradizione.


Daly, Selena


Roberto Salsano, Avanguardia e tradizione. Saggi su Mario Verdone, Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore, 2007. Pp. 155.

Mario Verdone is best known as a critic of the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, especially Futurism. While not ignoring this aspect of his career, Salsano's primary concern is to redress the lack of attention paid to Verdone's literary works, which include prose, poetry, theatre, and radio plays. Thus, the book is divided into two sections: the first dealing with Verdone, the author, and the second with Verdone, the critic. The book begins with a short note by Verdone himself, in which he describes his career as a critic and a writer, identifying his first meeting with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1935 as "l'incontro fatale" (9).

Throughout the whole of the first section, Salsano draws links between Verdone's writings and literature of the Italian avant-garde, most often Futurism. The first chapter of section one, "Mario Verdone scrittore," presents an analysis of Citta dell'uomo, published in 1941, a piece which, according to Salsano, rejects any kind of classification of structure or genre. Though it received a favourable review from Alberto Savinio upon publication, the work fell into obscurity and so Salsano wishes to confirm "la singolarita letteraria" (13) of the text. The city of the title is Siena and the author refers to the influence of Federigo Tozzi on Verdone. He also draws a number of links with Futurism, stating that the work preserves "qualcosa dell'ideale futurista" (20). The second chapter considers Bruciavano le colline, a one-act play written in 1944, during the German occupation of Siena. Salsano also relates elements of this work to movements of the avant-garde. The play describes Count Pietro's desire to celebrate carnevale, despite the war raging around them. Salsano interprets the gaiety of the celebrations, presented as a counterpoint to the war, as an overturning of the Futurist exhortation to glorify warfare and combat. (29) Pietro is identified as a raisonneur (30) and related to that type of character found in the plays of Pirandello and Rosso di San Secondo. In the third chapter, Salsano identifies "la piazza" and "il viaggio" (35) as two important elements of Verdone's prose and explores the "realismo magico" of two collections of short stories, La piazza magica (1984) and Raoul e altre storie (1998), associating aspects of his prose to the Futurist concept of the meraviglioso. Il mito del viaggio, published in 1997, the subject of chapter four, gathers together pieces written between the 1940s and the 1990s, and follows on nicely from the previous chapter. Salsano describes Il mito del viaggio as a "documento umano" (43) and a "tentativo teorico" (44). In the fifth chapter, two of Verdone's radio plays are explored, while the final chapter of the first section concerns Verdone's poetic writings, from the 1980s to 2000s. This last chapter offers an illuminating analysis of Verdone's poetry, relating it to both his non-fiction work and to aspects of Futurist theory. His use of antithesis and oxymoron are commented upon, as is a technique that approaches a kind of "montaggio" (66). In various poems, Verdone directly references the Futurist concepts of "aeropoesia" (73) and "paroliberismo" (75), but Salsano also isolates an echo of Marinetti's theory of synthetic theatre in Verdone's use of the haiku. (75)

The second section, "Teoria e storia del Futurismo in Verdone," comprises only two chapters, and less than twenty pages (compared to the 65 of the first section). The first of the two chapters concerns solely Verdone's Avventure teatrali del Novecento, published in 1999. This essay has already been published in a journal as a review. It reads very much like a review and appears to have scarcely been changed prior to publication in this volume. Given the breadth of Verdone's critical publication, it seems a pity to concentrate a whole chapter of this short second section on just one volume. Salsano praises the "aspetto documentario" (82) of Avventure teatrali del Novecento and also its second section, "Altri percorsi," which offers analysis of authors such as Pirandello, Tozzi, Lucini and Bontempelli. The final chapter of Salsano's volume, "Arte totale e drammaturgia del Novecento," is broader and offers an excellent overview of some aspects of Verdone's critical works right up to 2007. Salsano writes, in a kind of summing up, that "la sua opera [di Verdone] si colloca tra dottrina e gusto, professionalita e umanita." (99) The doctrine refers to his wideranging knowledge of theatre and performance, while his "gusto" and humanity are related to his personal experience of and direct contact with many of the figures he wrote about. These concluding comments, however, seem almost tacked on to the end of this last chapter. One is left wondering what these two chapters really add to Salsano's volume and whether it might have been better to dedicate the book to Verdone's literary production alone.

The majority of the essays published in this volume have already appeared in various journals and most of those included here were only "piu o meno ritoccati" (155) with regard to their previous outings. While the essays, especially those in the first section, are excellent individual pieces of scholarship, the whole volume seems to be lacking cohesion, and might have benefited from an introductory or a concluding chapter. The volume also offers a comprehensive bibliography of Verdone's publications and an appendix including some of the literary works Salsano discusses. These elements are both valuable additions to the book. This is both an interesting and worthwhile volume, although the target audience is specialized. It will be of interest to academics working in the area of Futurism and avant-garde Italian studies in cinema and theatre, who, though familiar with Verdone's critical work, will more than likely not be conversant with his work as a dramatist and author in his own right.

Selena Daly, University College Dublin
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