1.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
2.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
3.
Massimo Bontempelli
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Massimo Bontempelli was an Italian poet, playwright, novelist and composer. He was influential in developing and promoting the style known as magical realism. Bontempelli graduated from the University of Turin in 1903 and he taught elementary school for seven years, doing his writing on the side, but abandoned teaching for journalism when he could not secure a position at a secondary school. He served as a war correspondent during World War I, after the war, he settled in Milan and became interested in the literary styles of futurism and magical realism. In 1926, he, along with Curzio Malaparte, founded the journal 900, james Joyce, Max Jacob, and Rainer Maria Rilke sat on the editorial committee and Virginia Woolf and Blaise Cendrars were among the contributors. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Bontempelli was an active fascist and he served as a secretary of the fascist writers union and spent time abroad lecturing on Italian culture and spreading propaganda. In 1938, he refused to accept a university post formerly held by a Jewish professor and was kicked out of the fascist party, after World War II, Bontempelli won a Senate race but the results were voided when his fascist ties were discovered. In 1953, Bontempellis Lamante Fedele won the Strega Prize, Italys most prestigious literary award, after years of declining health, Bontempelli died in Rome in 1960. The Living Age, October 1,1926, pp. 68–71, the Living Age, July 1,1927, pp. 44–47. The Living Age, September 15,1927, pp. 549–551, the Living Age, April 15,1928, pp. 720–722. — Meeting Batoletti — A Railway Station Extravaganza, the Living Age, March 15,1930, pp. 115–120. — Letters of Introduction Translated by W. L, Translated by Anthony Oldcorn in Twentieth-Century Italian Drama, An Anthology, the First Fifty Years, ed. Jane House and Antonio Attisani. —Separations, Two Novels of Mothers and Children, — The Divine Miss D and Genuine Minnie in The Italian Theater of the Grotesque. A New Theater for the Twentieth Century, An Anthology, ed. —The Chess Set in the Mirror. Translated by Estelle Gilson with an introduction by Luigi Fontanella, host Publications,2007, —On A Locomotive & Other Runaway Tales. —Watching the Moon and Other Plays, translation and introduction by Patricia Gaborik
4.
Curzio Malaparte
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Curzio Malaparte, born Kurt Erich Suckert, was an Italian journalist, dramatist, short-story writer, novelist and diplomat. His chosen surname, which he used from 1925, means evil/wrong side and is a play on Napoleons family name Bonaparte which means, in Italian, good side. Born in Prato, Tuscany, Malaparte was a son of a German father, Erwin Suckert, an executive, and his Lombard wife. He was educated at Collegio Cicognini in Prato and at La Sapienza University of Rome, in 1918 he started his career as a journalist. Malaparte fought in World War I, earning a captaincy in the Fifth Alpine Regiment and several decorations for valor, in 1924, he founded the Roman periodical La Conquista dello Stato. In 1926 he founded with Massimo Bontempelli the literary quarterly 900, later he became a co-editor of Fiera Letteraria, and an editor of La Stampa in Turin. His polemical war novel-essay, Viva Caporetto, criticized corrupt Rome and the Italian upper classes as the real enemy. In Technique du coup detat, Malaparte attacked both Adolf Hitler and Mussolini, here he stated that the problem of the conquest and defense of the State is not a political one. It is a problem, a way of knowing when and how to occupy the vital state resources, the telephone exchanges, the water reserves. He taught a lesson that a revolution can wear itself out in strategy. In the same book, first published in French by Grasset, he entitled chapter VIII, A Woman and this led to Malaparte being stripped of his National Fascist Party membership and sent to internal exile from 1933 to 1938 on the island of Lipari. He was freed on the intervention of Mussolinis son-in-law and heir apparent Galeazzo Ciano. Mussolinis regime arrested Malaparte again in 1938,1939,1941, during that time he built a house, known as the Casa Malaparte, on Capo Massullo, on the Isle of Capri. It was later used as a location in Jean-Luc Godards film, shortly after his time in jail he published books of magical realist autobiographical short stories, which culminated in the stylistic prose of Donna come me. His remarkable knowledge of Europe and its leaders is based upon his experience as a correspondent, in 1941 he was sent to cover the Eastern Front as a correspondent for Corriere della Sera. The articles he sent back from the Ukrainian Fronts, many of which were suppressed, were collected in 1943, the experience provided the basis for his two most famous books, Kaputt and The Skin. Kaputt, his account of the war, surreptitiously written. Their appearance is miserable, their cruelty sad, their courage silent, as the Italian reporter, in his Kaputt World War II testimony, Malaparte described an interview with Pavelic, While he spoke, I gazed at a wicker basket on the Poglavniks desk
5.
James Joyce
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James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential, other well-known works are the short-story collection Dubliners, and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake. His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, occasional journalism and his published letters, Joyce was born in 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin—about half a mile from his mothers birthplace in Terenure—into a middle-class family on the way down. He went on to attend University College Dublin, in 1904, in his early twenties, Joyce emigrated permanently to continental Europe with his partner Nora Barnacle. They lived in Trieste, Paris and Zurich, Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. In the particular is contained the universal, James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on 2 February 1882 to John Stanislaus Joyce and Mary Jane May Murray, in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar. He was baptised according to the Rites of the Catholic Church in the nearby St Josephs Church in Terenure on 5 February by Rev. John OMulloy and his godparents were Philip and Ellen McCann. He was the eldest of ten surviving children, two of his siblings died of typhoid and his fathers family, originally from Fermoy in County Cork, had once owned a small salt and lime works. Joyces father and paternal grandfather both married into families, though the familys purported ancestor, Seán Mór Seoighe was a stonemason from Connemara. In 1887, his father was appointed rate collector by Dublin Corporation, around this time Joyce was attacked by a dog, which engendered in him a lifelong cynophobia. He also suffered from astraphobia, as an aunt had described thunderstorms to him as a sign of Gods wrath. In 1891 Joyce wrote a poem on the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish Party had dropped Parnell from leadership. But the Vaticans role in allying with the British Conservative Party to prevent Home Rule left an impression on the young Joyce. The elder Joyce had the printed and even sent a part to the Vatican Library. In November of that year, John Joyce was entered in Stubbs Gazette. In 1893, John Joyce was dismissed with a pension, beginning the familys slide into poverty caused mainly by his drinking and general financial mismanagement. Joyce had begun his education at Clongowes Wood College, a Jesuit boarding school near Clane, County Kildare and this came about because of a chance meeting his father had with a Jesuit priest who knew the family and Joyce was given a reduction in fees to attend Belvedere. In 1895, Joyce, now aged 13, was elected to join the Sodality of Our Lady by his peers at Belvedere, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas continued to have a strong influence on him for most of his life
6.
Pierre Mac Orlan
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Pierre Mac Orlan, sometimes written MacOrlan, was a French novelist and songwriter. His novel Quai des Brumes was the source for Marcel Carnés 1938 film of the same name and he was also a prolific writer of chansons, many of which were recorded and popularized by French singers such as Juliette Gréco, Monique Morelli, Catherine Sauvage, and Germaine Montero. Born in Péronne, Somme, in northern France, Mac Orlan lived in Rouen and Paris as a man, working at a variety of jobs. In his twenties, he travelled widely in Europe, before returning to Paris, in particular, his song performances were a regular feature at the Lapin Agile cabaret. During this period, he was part of a circle of writers and painters including Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire, Maurice Utrillo. He fought in the war against Germany until wounded in 1916, in later years he earned a living as a writer in Saint Cyr-sur-Morin, outside Paris. In the late 1920s he became a critic of film and photography, writing important essays about the work of Eugène Atget, Germaine Krull. In addition to Quai des Brumes, his many novels included A Bord de lEtoile Matutine, translated into English by Malcolm Cowley as On Board the Morning Star, among the popular chansons written by Mac Orlan are Fille de Londres, Le Pont du Nord and Nelly. The French singer Germaine Montero released a set of her interpretations of Mac Orlan songs on the CD Meilleur de Germaine Montero. He told Pascal Pia that he used the Dumarchey name to upset an uncle of his who made his life hard, the French writer and political theorist Guy Debord, founder of the Situationist International was a constant reader of Mac Orlans novels of urban adventure and low life. The well-known photographer of New York in the 1930s Berenice Abbott was highly influenced by Mac Orlans writings on the fantastique, alexis Lykiard, Mac Orlan Andy Merrifielod, The Strange Odyssey of Pierre Mac Orlan, The Brooklyn Rail,1 September 2004
7.
Corrado Alvaro
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Corrado Alvaro was an Italian journalist and writer of novels, short stories, screenplays and plays. He often used the style to describes the hopeless poverty in his native Calabria. His first success was Gente in Aspromonte, which examined the exploitation of peasants by greedy landowners in Calabria. He was born in San Luca, a village in the southernmost region of Calabria. His father Antonio was a school teacher and founded an evening school for farmers. Alvaro was educated at Jesuit boarding schools in Rome and Umbria and he served as an officer in the Italian army during World War I. After being wounded in both arms, he spend a time in military hospitals. After the war he worked as a correspondent in Paris for the anti-Fascist paper Il Mondo of Giovanni Amendola, in 1925, he supported the Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals written by the philosopher Benedetto Croce. In 1926 he published his first novel Luomo nel labirinto, which explored the growth of Fascism in Italy in the 1920s, a staunch democrat with strong anti-Fascist views, Alvaros politics made him the target of surveillance of Mussolinis Fascist regime. He was forced to leave Italy and during the 1930s he traveled widely in western Europe, the Middle East, journeys he later recounted in his travel essays. Luomo è forte, written after a trip in the Soviet Union, is a defense of the individual against the oppression of totalitarianism, after World War II Alvaro returned to Italy. He again worked for prominent daily newspapers as special correspondent, theater and film critic and he was elected secretary of the Italian Association of Writers in 1947, a post he held until his death in Rome in 1956. Initially, Alvaros literary efforts did not enjoy great success, critics praised his first novel Luomo nel labirinto for its portrayal of alienation of individuals and society as a whole. His subsequent works, Lamata alla finestra, Gente in Aspromonte, La signora dellisola, a jury that included the noted Italian novelist Luigi Pirandello awarded him a prize of 50,000 lire given by the newspaper La Stampa in 1931 for Gente in Aspromonte. In 1951 he won the Strega Prize – Italys most prestigious literary award – for his novel Quasi una vita, Alvaro is noted for his realistic, epic depictions of the Italian poor. His later work portrayed the contrasts between a yearning for the simple, pastoral way of life, and the aspiration to achieve success that attracts people to the city. Giornale di uno scrittore Il nostro tempo e la speranza, saggi di vita contemporanea Un fatto di cronaca. Settantacinque racconti Colore di Berlino. com Fondazione Corrado Alvaro Corrado Alvaro at the Internet Movie Database
