Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Elio Vittorini
Author(s): Sergio J. Pacifici
Source: Books Abroad, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Autumn, 1955), pp. 401-403
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40094750
Accessed: 06-02-2017 16:57 UTC

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 Elio Vittorini
By SERGIO J. PACIFICI

tt n the already heavily studded literary fir- or years, the editor of a weekly Communist
mament of today's Italy, hardly a critic or sheet, II Politecnico, which ceased publi-
JL a reader would seriously deny that Elio cation about two years after its inception)
Vittorini* (b. 1908) is one of the brightest have obfuscated and confused the issues
and most promising stars, in the company posed by his fiction, splitting the ranks of
of such distinguished artists as Alberto Mo- the critics into irreconcilable partisan fac-
ravia, Vasco Pratolini, and Riccardo tions. The result has been that it has be-
Bacchelli. The story of the important con- come all the more arduous for the reading
tribution Vittorini has brought to Italian public to reach a fair and impartial esti-
culture through his many and diversified mate of a novelist whose nonconformity
activities is now, if not as widely known and disrespect of all traditional literary con-
as it deserves to be, a matter of established ventions and forms present immediate ob-
record. His sensitive translations of modern stacles for the less sophisticated reader.
American classics (Faulkner, Hemingway, However this may be, some cogent observa-
Saroyan, Steinbeck, et al.); his editorship tions can be made at this point. A quick
of the fine series of contemporary Italian glance at the books Vittorini has written to
narrative christened / gettoni (published by date, for instance, ought to convince us that
Einaudi) ; his perceptive criticism of mod- whatever their merits may be (and here
ern literature - have placed him in the lime- there is considerable room for honest dis-
light of intellectual activity in Europe. Like- agreement) they ought to be considered as
wise, his work as a writer of fiction par- fragments of a large attempt to dramatize
ticularly gifted with imagination and sen-
sibility has made him one of the most con-
troversial, and in many ways crucial, fig-
ures of Italian literature.
Yet, for all the attention his work has
received over the past twenty-odd years, it
must be acknowledged that it has so far
eluded any clear critical definition - how-
ever tentative. There are good reasons for
this state of affairs. For one thing, much of
Vittorini's recent production has been quite
frankly experimental and, in many respects,
it has added little that is substantially new
to the great and articulate "confession" of
Conversazione in Sicilia. Moreover, the
many extra-literary activities in which Vit-
torini has taken an active part in the imme-
diate postwar period (he was, for a number

* This article was written as a supplement to the essays

on contemporary Italian letters by Remo Cantoni, Elio
Vittorini, and Sergio Antonielli, in order to fill an ob-
vious (and intentional) lacuna of the longer essay and
to give a general picture of Vittorini's Wdrk.: - The
VAknrs. ELIO VITTORINI

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402 BOOKS ABROAD

a serious contemporary will

vision. This vision,only in the
be determined
"inner"
as the attentive reader will history
perceive, of the nove
stems
mains
from the author's lively to be written.
and intense aware-
ness of, and feeling for,The
the socio-political
real story of Vittorini begins in the
changes and upheavalsThirties,
of our with aday. If
visit paid the This
to Milan.
present writer is, in effect,
trip was ofsuggesting that for
special personal significance,
this general view will lead us to a more
it awakened in him a socio-political aware-
fruitful reading, it is ness
only
that hadbecause
long remained he hasOut
dormant.
become convinced that for Vittorini litera-
of this trip and out of his renewed contact
ture and life (and, bywithextension, lifein and
life, grew Conversazione Sicilia, one
politics) have become so closely interwoven
of the finest books of contemporary litera-
as to exclude any possibility,
ture, a moving however re-
record of the literal journey
mote, of being considered
undertaken by Silvestro, a youngan
anything but Milanese
unsplittable atom. Indeed, it seems
linotype setter, incon-
to his native town of Syra-
ceivable for our novelist that the contempo-
cuse, in Sicily. Like most of the books Vit-
rary artist should seek torini
refuge in the
was to write, myth-
Conversazione is hardly
ical "ivory tower," no matter
a novel in the accepted sense of his
how deep the word.
disillusionment with life may
It has neither be. Such
a well-constructed a nor a
plot
retreat could hardly besetpermissible and jus-
of well-defined and carefully developed
tified in our present-day living.
characters. On
It is, in the
essence, con-
a kind of alle-
trary, the artist must get involved, if only
gorical tale, impregnated with subtle ref-
to a limited degree, in erences
society; he must
to contemporary events, be-
such as the
come absorbed by andChinese
in its and conflicts and
Spanish civil wars, Fascism,
tensions; and, finally, he
the must sense,
police state dissect,
of Mussolini, and so forth.
and portray the reality of "his"
The events world
of the story as rela-
are sparse and
honestly and as powerfully as he can. The
tively ordinary. Silvestro meets half a dozen
characters, allconsists
great achievement of Vittorini of whom remain pre- unnamed
cisely in his having succeeded
throughout thein dramatiz-
book except for a nickname
ing boldly and uniquely at least a facet
usually suggested either oftrait
by a physical
the predicament of modern Man, painfully,
or by the Bible, and for three days while he
though not hopelessly, caught
is in Syracuse he within the who
follows his mother
most violent clashes of ideologies - social,
earns her livelihood by giving injections to
political, and moral - the
that have
destitute been
townsfolk ex-afford
who cannot
perienced in our century.a doctor. He even gets drunk, and it is then
Having accepted these thatpremises, it will
he visits the local cemetery, where he
be somewhat less bafflingmeets the
toghost
find of hisour
brother, killed on the
way
in the labyrinthine maze battlefield.
of Vittorini's
Finally, he returns lit-
to his home
erary production and begin
in Milan.some
But these sort of merely
events serve or- as a
derly appraisal of it. His
wayfirst books, toPiccola
for the author-hero give vent to the
"abstract
borghesia (a collection of shortfuries about the doomed
stories toldhuman
race" obsessing
in the traditional nineteenth him at the beginning
century man-of his
ner); Viaggio in Sardegna (a travelogue
journey. In Sicily Silvestro not only "finds"
written in a highly lyrical vein),
himself again, andsome
but understands // of the
rawwith
garofano rosso (a novel and inescapable realities of Life.
autobigraph-
ical overtones about adolescence in Fascist
Thanks to the great wisdom and humanity
Italy), while in many ways artistically
of Calogero, the knife-grinder, ma-
and of a man
named Ezechiele,
ture, may be said to belong to the he understands
inevitable at last the
period of apprenticeship every
wickedness of the writer ex-
world at large and the
grave insults perpetuated
periences. Their real importance, by man on Man
however,

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 ELIO VITTORINI 403

ing a new life

throughout Time. A central out of chaos
passage in and destruc-
Con-
versazione sheds considerable
tion is the subject oflight upon
he donne di Messina,
Vittorini's last
this "situation" and provides, as and
itleast successful
were, novel,
the
marked by complexity of
very key to a basic understanding and turgidity.
Vitto-
rini's view of the world The
: story of Vittorini is by no means
Not every man ... isover.
a man.
Those who haveOne per-
followed him closely
secutes and another isknow
persecuted. Kill experiences,
that, for all his varied a
man, and he will be something more than
he is still a "young" writer, a subtle and
a man. Similarly, a man who is sick or
starving is more than mature
a man;craftsmanandwhose past
more failures are to
be attributed
human is the race of the starving. more to his overlabored at-
In his subsequent novels, the
tempts to reach author
certain has
unusual artistic ef-
tried to restate withfects,
more than to eloquence
a faulty sense of "style."
and It is
through the medium of no secret,
boldertoo, that "forms"
our novelist aspiresthe
to the
very same vision so starkly writing of the
andbook,powerfully
an ideal conception to
enunciated in the earlier Conversazione, crown his labors by firmly capturing and
depicting in a true poetic idiom that ineffa-
But if the later novels cannot be accepted as
ble part of Life which rational discourse can
superior works, this is due mainly to the
never succeed in expressing. To this prob-
fact that Vittorini has chosen to gamble his
lem, close to his critical sense and poetic
entire reputation by striving to reach cer-
tain desired effects without proceeding sensibility, Vittorini has devoted many years
of meditation and speculation. Ever since
toward his goal by way of carefully formu-
before 1949, when his he donne di Messina
lated successive stages. The novels he has
written since the beginning of the war havewas brought out, he has been at work on a
further clarified the fact that our author big and important novel. Those who have
seeks his inspiration in the very socio-politi- read portions of this forthcoming book have
cal conditions of our day whose influence been much impressed by its beauty and by
he has felt to such a degree as to have be- the author's skilful "formal" treatment of
come a writer truly engage. Thus, out of the the story, clearly hinting that the readers
war and the author's own experience in the will not be disappointed.
underground movement, came Uomini e A more precise and complete evaluation
no, possibly one of the most dramatic ac- of Vittorini must logically wait until such
counts of Man's opposition to tyranny to be time as his new novel will be published in
written in recent times. Similarly, the la- its entirety. Since this work and his future
mentably low standards of living endured writings will largely determine the place he
by the Italian worker in the immediate is to have in contemporary literature, we
postwar period provided Vittorini with ma- shall have to read them more carefully and
terial for II sempione strizza Vocchio al Fre~ with greater awareness of (and therefore
jus, the saga of an old man with mythical sympathy for) the difficulties implicit in
strength who, by his acceptance of his Fate, their structure and in their author's
rises to a kind of gigantic symbol of Man's "search." We can only hope that a bril-
dignity and courage. Finally, the rebirth of liant promise may be realized and that Vit-
a bombed town in Sicily and the collective torini, at long last, may succeed in accom-
spirit of a newly-founded community work- plishing his vital poetic mission.
ing toward the same positive goals of build- Yale University

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