Ten Poets: New Verses in Italian Contemporary Literature

Empty spaces are as important as written words when you engage yourself in reading a poem seriously. We will pay the same attention to the voices and to their silences while reading ten Italian poets from the twentieth century: Umberto Saba, Aldo Palazzeschi, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eugenio Montale, Sandro Penna, Vittorio Sereni, Andrea Zanzotto, Elsa Morante, Patrizia Cavalli, Valerio Magrelli. We will read and comment in class two or three texts for each author for a total of ten poets.

Required texts:

Poeti italiani del Novecento, anthology edited by Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo, Oscar Mondadori, Milano 1990

A profile of Elsa Morante, Valerio Magrelli, and Patrizia Cavalli, who are not included in Mengaldo’s anthology, will be provided by the instructor, together with the texts to be read and commented.