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Giovanni Papini (1881-1956) | |
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Journalist, polemical critic, poet, and novelist, whose avant-garde polemics made him one of the most controversial Italian literary figures in the early and mid-20th century. Giovanni Papini advocated breaking with tradition and defering to the new generation, but after World War II he lost his influence as an opinion leader. His ideological development was full of paradoxes: he was first an anti-nationalist, then a staunch nationalist; first an agnostic, but then turned to Roman Catholicism. He wrote both a life of Christ and a history of the Devil. Papini published over eighty books on philosophy, theory and literary criticism, as well as novels and short stories. "I did not accept reality. No words can express my disgust at the physical, human, rational world, which suppressed me and did not leave room and air enough for my restless wings." (from Un uomo finito, 1912) Giovanni Papini was born in Florence of lower middle class parents. From an early age he devoted himself to literature. Of himself, Papini once said, "Everybody knows, his friends with even more certainly than his enemies, that he is the ugliest man in Italy (if indeed he deserves the name of man at all), so repulsive that Mirabeau would seem in comparison an academy model, a Discobolus, an Apollo Belvedere. And since the face is the mirror of the soul . . . no one will be surprised to learn that Papini is the scoundrel of literature, the blackguard of journalism, the Barabbas of art, the thug of philosophy, the bully of politics, the Apaché of culture..." Papini read widely from his grandfather's library and at the age of 15 started to write an encyclopedia. After attending Norman School in Florence Papini received his teacher's certificate around 1900. Although Papini adopted militaristic views, he was exempted from military service on grounds of health. In an essay of 1906 (Il Leonardo, August), he urged the establishing in Rome of a new world power, and the abandonment of the 'politics of meditation'. At the age of 22 Papini's writing aspirations led him into contact with other young writers and artists. He founded and managed with Giuseppe Prezzolini the influential but short-lived Florentine magazine Leonardo (1903-07) and La Voce. It attempted to modernize Italian culture, introduced significant French, British, and American ideas, and attacked such traditionalist writers as D'Annunzio. In Leonardo Papini boldly argued that one must write badly, meaning that the artistic form is secondary to the idea. Among his other targets was the positivist philosophy which was gaining ground in Italy. In 1913 Papini launched the journal Lacerba, which attracted many young writers. He also collaborated in writing La Cultura Italiana (1906) and Vecchio e Nuovo Nazionalismo (1914). In the 1910s he joined the Futurist artistic movement, which admired the dynamic energy of modern machines, and founded the periodical Lacerba (1913) to further its aims. "... a new beauty... a roaring motorcar, which runs like a machine-gun, is more beautiful than the Winged Victory of Samothrace... We wish to glorify war... " (Marinetti in an article in Le Figaro). However, later Papini turned against the movement. In his youth Papini was a severe critic of Christianity, but was converted to Roman Catholicism in 1920. He gained international fame with his religious novel STORIA DI CRISTO (1921). Its English translation, The Life of Christ, was a huge bestseller in 1923, with such works as H.G. Wells's The Outline of History and Sinclair Lewis's novel Babbitt. Among his other popular works is the autobiographical novel UN UOMO FINOTO (1912). It draws a portrait of a restless intellectual and his deep dissatisfaction with contemporary philosophical debate and intellectual mediocrity. Also in many of his short stories Papini himself is the main character. In one story the author meets himself as the young man he was and whom he only vaguely remembers; in another he continues to live after his suicide in order to pay a minor debt. "I am not a real man. I am not a man like others, a man of flesh and blood, a man born of woman. I did not come into this world like your fellow men. No one rocked me in my cradle, or watched over my growing years. I have not known the restlessness of adolescence, or the comfort of family ties. I am – and I will say this out loud though perhaps you may not want to believe me - I am but a figure in a dream. In me, Shakespeare's image has become literally and tragically exact: I am such stuff as dreams are made on! I exist because someone is dreaming of me, someone who is now asleep and dreaming and sees me act and live and move, and in this very moment is dreaming that I am saying these words." (from 'The Sick Gentleman's Last Visit') In the 1930s Papini supported Mussolini. His loyalty was recognized officially in 1939 when he was honored with the title "Accademico d'Italia." A few years earlier Papini had published STORIA DELLA LETTERATURA ITALIANA (1937) which was dedicated 'To the Duce, friend of poetry and poets'. The ambitious literary history dealt with the 13th and 14th centuries and never proceeded further. Papini's interest not only in contemporary affairs was already seen in L'UOMO CARDUCCI (1918), a sympathetic portrait of the poet-critic Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907). While the Jews in Italy's popular literature of the 1930s lost any potentially positive traits, Papini developed a vision of the world Jewish conspiracy. In 1935 he was appointed as a professor at the University of Bologna. From 1938 he published the magazine La Rinascita. After WW II Papini founded with Silvano Gianelli and Adolfo Oxilia the avant-garde Catholic review L'Ultima. Papini's reputation as an iconoclast faded during his last years. His later works included IL DIAVOLO (1953), which showed his strong Catholic commitment. Papini died rather suddenly in 1956. For further reading: Discorso su Giovanni Papini by G. Prezzolini (1915); Conversazioni critiche, vol. 4 by B. Croce (1932); La critica letteraria contemporanea, vol. 2 by L. Russo (1943); Storia della letteratura, vol. 5 by F. Flora (1947); Giovanni Papini, 1881-1956 by Gennaro Lovreglio (1973-75); Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, ed. by Jean-Albert Bédé and William B. Edgerton (1980); Giovanni Papini. L’anima intera by Carmine di Biase (1999) - FUTURISM: An artistic movement, which began in Italy about 1909 and was founded by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944). Futurism rejected tradition and admired the energy, urbanism, militarism, and the speed of modern machines. Russian Futurism added to its Italian model social and political ideas. In rebel against tradition, poets discarded grammar and syntax and used strings of words stripped from their original meaning. The influence of the movement ended by the time of Mayakovsky's death in 1930. - Note: Papini is mentioned in Henry Miller's book Tropic of Cancer and Carolyn Burke's biography of the radical English poet-painter Mina Loy, with whom Papini had also an illicit affair. - Suomeksi Papinilta on romaanien lisäksi ilmestynyt käännöksiä Italian kirjallisuuden kultaisessa kirjassa, toim. Tyyni Tuulio, 1945 - See other Futurist writers: French poet Guillaume Apollinaire and Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky Selected works:
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