Darkness at the Heart of Recent Italian Literature
2011; University of Oklahoma; Volume: 85; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wlt.2011.0177
ISSN1945-8134
Autores Tópico(s)Italian Fascism and Post-war Society
Resumo>cc O < cc u o (O X a. If have Italian there to literature is describe one leitmotif it of as the a baffled running past decade, attempt through I'd to Italianliterature of thepast decade,I'd havetodescribe itas a baffled attempt to understand: What went wrong? LetmelayoutsomeofthemainlinesofItaly 'sdark heart. Italy iscelebrating its150th anniversary thisyear,a commemoration thathappenstocoincide with theoutbreak ofAmerica's CivilWar.Likemostthings Italian, thedetails arefar toointricate togointo here, butbasically nosooner didItaly begintounify - anditwas a ten-year process - thanthesouthroseup in rebellion againstitsnewnorthern, "Piedmontese ,"rulers, thehouse of Savoy.A popular uprising infavor ofBourbon kings isoneofthe most contradictory ideasimaginable, butthat is whathappened. It'sas iftheCivilWarhadbrokenoutinAugust of1776, andgoneonas long andas divisively as theVietnam War. Thatuprising, knownas II Brigantaggio, ragedfortwenty years;somehistorians have estimated as many as a million deaths, directly and indirectly. Peasantswereforbidden from goingintothefieldswithweaponson pain ofexecution without trial: scythes and sickles wereconsidered weapons.Manyharvests were left towither in thefields. Aboutthisbrigand uprising, CarloLeviwrote:"Themyth ofthe brigands is. . .theonly poetry intheir existence, their dark, desperate epic.. . . When, after infinite endurance, they areshaken tothedepths of their beings andaredriven byaninstinct ofselfdefense orjustice, their revolt knows nobounds andnomeasure. Itisaninhuman revolt whose point ofdeparture andfinal endalikearedeath, inwhich ferocity isbornofdespair." An Italythatwas thrown together in this waywas thenfrog-marched intoWorldWarI through backroom machinations, and technicallyfought on bothsides in WorldWar II: FascistItalywas thedisasterthatwe know, but after1943 resistance forcesfought back againsttheGermanoccupation. In thesouth, American troops brought backtheMafiathat Mussolini hadexpelled (Mussolini's rough justiceprompted one Mafiacapo to addressthe judge:"Tothink, YourHonor, that withallthe murders I've committed you shouldfindme guilty ofoneI knownothing about. . ."),tothe point that Sicily's occupation governor, Charles Poletti - former governor of New YorkState, thefirst Italian American governor inAmerican July -August 201 1133 Antony Shugaar isaprolific translator, with new novels by Silvia Avallone, Gianrico Carofiglio, Diego DeSilva, Giorgio Faletti, Gianni Rodari, and Paolo Sorrentino forthcoming in2011. The recipient of a2007 NEA translation fellowship, heis also the author of ILie for a Living and Coast to Coast, and the coauthor of Latitude Zero: Tales of the Equator. history - had MafiabossVitoGenoveseas his driver andinterpreter. Fortwenty yearsafter thewar,Italywas basically fought overbyCommunists ontheone handand theMafiaon theother. In themid1960s , whena Socialist prime minister tried to introduce landreform, theItalian armedforces rattled their sabers bysending convoys outonto every highway intheland,amongtheSunday traffic, sowing fear among Italian families. Inthe late1960s, neo-Fascists planted bombs inbanks, publicsquares, andontrains, blaming theleft. Theleft tooktothestreets, adopting nameslike theRedBrigades, whichharkened backtothe brigades oftheItalian resistance, intheir deepseatedbelief that a country that hadoncebeen occupiedby Germans was now occupiedby Americans, NATO,andmultinational corporations , from IBMtoMcDonald's. AndoncetheYearsofLeadwereover, once the fighting hadagainsubsided, Italy fell into the handsofitspresent ruler: SilvioBerlusconi. It's difficult tosaywhether thepresence ofa former crooner andtelevision tycoon as national leader has beenmoredetrimental or inspirational to Italy'swriters. Buttounderstand thedarkness atthecurrent coreofItaly's darkheart, consider thissingle detail: whenSilvioBerlusconi's childrenweresmall , thefuture tycoon, mogul, and premier hired a known Mafioso tolookafter the horses hischildren rodeandtotakethekidsto school. Think trust. Think hostages. I first lowing saw year, Italy Silvio as a teenager, Berlusconi in1972: managed thefolto lowingyear,SilvioBerlusconi managedto altertheflight pathsofplanestaking off from Milanairport to improve themarket valueof hissatellite city, Milano2. I wentbacktoItaly as a journalist in 1983,as managing editor for a newartmagazine calledFMR.Thatyear, the investigating magistrates ofMilanfirst casttheir spotlight on Berlusconi ina money-laundering case. A fewyearslater,I was covering the growth oftheItalianmassmediaforAdvertising AgeandAdweek: Berlusconi wasskirting the law,enforcing a statetelevision monopoly as a private television broadcaster. A magistrate orderedBerlusconi's broadcasting operations shutdown.Theprimeminister ofItalyat the time, Bettino Craxi,passeda specialdecreeat recordspeed, restoring Berlusconi's rightto broadcast - by leavingitin legallimbo.Craxi was also Berlusconi's bestman a yearlater, whenhemarried hissecondwife. I understand the Libyanswho've never known any rulerbut Qaddafi. I've never known - mostItalianshaveneverknown - an Italywithout Berlusconi. The elephant in the room,withItalianliterature, is alwaysBerlusconi .The manownsor controls virtually all ofItaly'stelevision broadcasting, 80percent of itsbookpublishing, andhasbeenthedominant political figure for most ofthepasttwodecades. TwodecadesishowlongMussolini ruled - Italianshorthand for theyears oftheFascist regime is theventennio, theTwenty Years - and while Berlusconi is certainly no Mussolini, he is a deeply compromised andcompromising figure. As a result, thereis a sensein Italythat somemeasure ofheroic engagement isrequired from Italy'swriters. The"darkheartofItaly," toborrow thetitle ofTobiasJones's 2003bestseller , is atplaythroughout Italian literature of thepastdecade. Asa translator anda critic, I lookatItalian literature first andforemost through thelenses ofthebooksI translate andreview, secondarily through thelensofthe booksIjustread, andlast ofall,thebooksthat arediscussed andreviewed byothers. OnebookI justfinished translating, for instance, fits into this scenario. Ina sense, it's a lookbackatthethirty yearsfrom 1980tothe present, a time inwhich Berlusconi extended his tentacles overItaliansociety. It'salso an elegy totheItaly that was:theItaly oftheResistance, theItalyofprogress, theItalythatwas once modern, anItaly that perhaps never existed - an Italy without Berlusconi. Everybody's Right ,a best-seller byacclaimed film director PaoloSorrentino (IIDivo), isa first novel,and it tellsthestory ofa coke-addled lounge singernamed Tony Pagoda (whose overbearing andself-centered persona couldn't help but evokeAndyKaufmann's alterego, Tony Clifton, atleasttothis reader). Tony Pagoda is an original: a loquacious, overenergetic, pitiless observer oflifeand other peopleand, eventually, himself. Hereheisonlife: "Weforgetitevery time andthen wealwaysremember again,againandagainandall overagain,that thisfucking lifeof oursalways,uninterruptedly ,obtusely, alwaysplaysthesame stupid fucking trick on us. Itgivesyoua smidgen of joyand thenimmediately yanksitawayfrom 34 1 World Literature Today you.Samething tonight. Hereandeverywhere elseonearth." InthearcofPagoda'snarrative, heswerves through a series ofpicaresque escapades ,escapesintotheheart oftheAmazonian junglein pursuit of monotony and headlong flight from thesupposedattractions ofmodern life,onlyto return to Italyfora high-paying jobwitha thinly concealed Berlusconi persona. Atonepoint, Pagodamusesaboutlife, pointing out thatwe expectmoreand more,and instead we getlessandless.Andwhatdo the protagonist andthereader windupwith? Silvio Berlusconi. Another particularly interesting groupis WuMing, alsoknown as Luther Blissett, a collective offive anonymous writers from Bologna whohavesuccessfully published a number of counterfactual historical novels, translated into English as Q,54,andManituana. Reviewer Boyd Tonkingave54 thisglowingcoveragein the Independent in2005: Snappily translated byShaunWhiteside, 54 takesplaceoverthatsingleyear, half a century ago. At thiscrucialturningpoint - so thenovelclaims - Italy'sand Europe'shopes of radicalchangefounderedinthefaceofHollywood escapism, lifestyle dreams, ColdWarintrigues, and themight oftheUS-backed elites. In one corner oftheplot,a bunchofPartisans andCommunists whohangoutina Bologna cafedrift away fromrevolutionary idealism andinto dodgy dealswith Mafiaconnected thugs: thefirst stepsdownthe primrose pathtoBerlusconi-dom. Giannino Malossi,a cultural observer and author, notes: IfTheodor Adorno werepublished inItaly today - he'soutofprint, bytheway - Silvio Berlusconi would be his publisher. Need I saymore?Actually, there is one hopefulsign: Nanni Balestrini, witha groupofolderItalian intellectuals including Umberto Eco, has brought back a venerablemagazinefromthe Eighties, Alfabeta, and now Alfabeta has a literary supplement, AlfaLibri. Theyare providingone ofthefewlivelyand encouragingforums foryoungwriters. It's a lot likethatmovie,Yellow Submarine ? There was oncea land - Italy - thatwas fullof colorandmusic, butthen theBiechi Blu whatdo you call themin English, the BlueMeanies? - cameand tookoverand drainedall thecolorand happinessout ofthecountry. Thatwas Berlusconi and hispeople.Andso thelittle orchestra of veryold musicians - Alfabeta - sendsthe YellowSubmarine tofind young peopleto savetheir Pepper land. DanieleGiglioli, a professor ofcomparative literature attheUniversity ofBergamo, hadthis tosayaboutthelastdecadeofItalian literature: "Italyhas slippedintoa periodofprosperity and shallowness, garishand vulgar,roughly corresponding to the tenureof Berlusconi." Askedtocomment ontheinterpretation ofItaly asPepperland, Giglioli laughed: "Sadandcolorless ?No,Italy under Berlusconi issadbutvery, very colorful." To takes, give consider someidea one ofthe of Nanni form this Balestrini's shadow takes,consider one of NanniBalestrini's recent nonfiction novels,Sandokan (2004).This is one of a half-dozen books I'll exploreor touch onbelowthat deal,directly ortangentially ,withBerlusconi's outsizedimpact. Largely overlooked bycritics, itwas,however, listed by PopMatters as one ofthetenorso bestnovels of2009.A "nonfiction" novel, itis constructed, likea collage,from a seriesof tape-recorded interviews withunderstandably anonymous residents of the area outsideNaples under thefeudalcontrol oftheNeapolitan Camorra, a mainlandequivalentof theSicilianMafia. PopMatters' s ChrisBarsanti wrote: "Balestrini's storyis a floodlike first-person narrative in which thedespondent resident ofa smallsouthernItaliantowntellshowhiscommunity was engulfedand made utterly unlivableby an ultraviolent clanofCamorra. . . . He talksinan uninterrupted, frequently unpunctuated flow of despondent, bloody, ripped-from-the-headlines reportage, spilling hisguts, though heseemsto knowthatno matter whathe saysorwhohe saysitto,theregime ofinescapable corruption willcontinue. His voicespikeswithrageand deepens with sorrow asherelates ina pounding rushtheslow,thensudden,deathofa region whereviolencewas alwaysin theblood and Sorrentino's novel is an elegy to the Italy that was: the Italy of the Resistance, the Italy of progress, the Italy that was once modern, an Italy that perhaps never existed - an Italy without Berlusconi. JulyAugust 201 1135 was seemingly justwaiting forsomeforce to unleash it." Balestrini's research assistant in theconstruction ofSandokan was Roberto Saviano.An insanely courageous nativeoftheNaplesarea, Savianois a talented authorwho wenton to reap a best-seller alongwitha whirlwind of fame anddanger that hemaynothavewanted. His bookGomorrah is a furious j'accuse against bothorganized crime inItalyand thegovernment 's connivance withit.Wu Minghailedit as a sterling example ofwhatthey calltheNew Italian Epic. Wu Ming1,a pseudonymous member of thewriting collective, delivereda speechin Londonon thistopicthatnicely showsoff the issuesatplay: Themostfamous and successful ofthese worksis of course RobertoSaviano's Gomorrah, which soldabouta million and a halfcopiesand triumphantly entered Italianpopularculture. In Gomorrah the synthesis ofnonfiction andauto-fiction is so subtle that itreaches uncanny heights. Itlookslikea powerful report onNaples' organized crime andthewayitoperates in theglobalized economy, andcertainly the state ofthings itdescribes ispainfully real, butthisis no ordinary pieceofjournalism .. . . Whenthebookwaspublished in theEnglish-speaking countries (unfortunately ina poortranslation), reviewers got puzzledaboutit.Here'sa passagefrom RachelDonadio'sreview intheNewYork Times: "Farmoreproblematic is thedifficulty inpinning this bookdown.InItaly, Gomorrah wasdescribed as a 'docufiction,' suggesting that Savianotook liberties with hisfirst-person accounts. . . . Buttheemotionaltruth ofSaviano'saccount is unassailable .I couldnotgetthisbravebook outofmyhead."I guessDonadionever had suchperplexities in readinga book by HunterS. Thompson. Nobodyever caredaboutwhatwas true andwhatwas fictional in Thompson's writing. What's thedifference here? Thedifference is that Gomorrah isfar from beinganironic piece ofwork. Gomorrah isd-e-a-d-l-y serious. GiuseppeGenna(b.1969)isa poet,writer, andeditorial entrepreneur whohasclosetiesto Wu Ming.One ofhisnoirnovels, In the Name ofIshmael, was published byMiramax in2003, translated by Ann Goldstein."The tortuous plot - involving sadomasochistic clubs,fringe sects,and assassins - hingeson thehistorical figure ofEnricoMattei, an Italianindustrialistwho died in a planecrashin 1962under suspiciouscircumstances. The author, a poet and journalist, writeswithjittery, propulsive energy, and he can stopthereadercoldwith a singleimage,as whenhe describes, at the crash site of Mattei'splane, the unbroken, blood-stained trees" (NewYorker, BooksBriefly Noted).ThedeathofMattei isoneofthecrucial stories thatfitintotheconspiracy theorem of theItalian left-wing intelligentsia. Perhaps even moreevocativeis Genna's Dies Irae,widely considered hisbest:inJune 1981a six-year-old boy,Alfredo Rampi, felldowna wellandwas thesubject ofeighteen hoursoflivetelevision coverage, Italy's first mediaevent. Theladdied, but thecircusprovedprofitable, reminiscent ofBillyWilder's1951AceintheHole.On that same"day ofrage,"membership listsforthe shadowyP2 MasonicLodgeareuncovered by thepolice,"God's Banker"RobertoCalvi is putontrial for fraudulent bankruptcy, andthe Berlusconi brothers beginconstruction ofthe satellite city Milano2. 36 1 World Literature Today 2 u© < Q < cn O QC < o 0 1 CL Alberto Rollo, editorial director ofFeltrinelli ,a major Italian publisher andbookseller, when askedwhat bookhe'dbeespecially interested in seeing published inEnglish, replied: "Teresa ,the story ofa young girl from Sicily whosefather is murdered bytheMafia.It'sbyClaudioFava, and one of theinteresting things aboutit is that, ofcourse, hisfather was murdered bythe Mafia/'To an Italian, that"ofcourse"covers a number ofpoints:who GiuseppeFava was (thefather of Claudio Fava, an investigative journalist and activist who was knownboth forhisworkagainst theMafiaandagainst the deployment ofAmerican missiles inSicily); who ClaudioFavais (a fifty-six-year-old member of theItalianparliament and author oftenother books,deeplysuspicious oftheAmerican role ina political atmosphere that allowstheMafia toflourish); andwhattheCIA,theMafia, and geopolitical considerations havetodo with one another. Fava'sfather was killedin 1984while waiting topickuphisgranddaughter; lessthan three yearsbefore GiuseppeFava's murder, a politician belonging totheAmerican-supported Christian Democratic party, CiroCirillo, was kidnapped bytheRedBrigades. Ina revealing move,the Christian Democratsreachedout to theNeapolitan Camorra - a branchof the Mafia - for helpinsecuring Cirillo's release. left Ascene from Gomorrah, afilm based onthe best-selling novel by Roberto Saviano. Bookswritten by politicians oftenlack emotionalresonance , butthisstory ofa younggirl whofleestonorthern Italy, stealsa pistol, and returns toSicily tomurder themanwhokilled herfather hasstrong psychic credentials. Inan author statement, Favawrites: "Thisismystory, thestory ofallofuswhohavehadtodealwith theintolerable presence ofa despicable political class,notonlywilling buteagertocompromise with theMafia." Notetheinteresting detailthat theItalianfor"despicable" (bieca) is thesame wordused to describe theBlueMeanies,the Biechi Blu. Italy culturally andAmerica and politically, havemarched formuch sideby of side, the culturally and politically, formuchof the pastcentury anda half, a dysfunctional couple joinedat theimmigrant hip. Fromtheletter Abraham Lincoln's secretary ofstatewroteto thenew northern Italiangovernment in the early1860s,commiserating overtheinconvenientsouthern rebellion and promising solidarity in their sharedplight, to theconversations wecanimagine between SilvioBerlusconi andRossPerot, whoownpractically adjoining vacationhomesin Tucker'sTown,Bermuda ("You'reright, Ross,whyshouldn't I justrun forprimeminister myself?"), there hasbeena shadowy connection atalllevels. With thefall of theBerlin Wall,unquestioning American supportforMafia -linked Italiananti-Communists weakened.But the Italiannickname forthe Mafia, "theOctopus," still implies tentacles that aredifficult ifnotimpossible toloosen. Every oneofthese books, andmany more, overlooked by American publishers and too numerous to mention here,is as Wu Ming1 putit,"d-e-a-d-l-y serious."And deadlyserious ,under thesurface tension ofthebeauty and bawdiness andquainteccentricity oftheItalian stereotype, is thestruggle forthesoul ofthis strange nation. Charlottesville, Virginia July -August 201 1137 ...
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