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Conference : National literary fields and European space

Stracittà, Strapaese and the cultural frontiers

Author/s : Rosario Gennaro

Literary historiography sets an important part of Italian cultural activity in the second half of the 1920s in the struggle between two “movements” opposed to each other on the basis of a rather schematic set of distinct attitudes and beliefs. On the one hand, there is Strapaese (the journals “ Il Selvaggio”, “L’Italiano” and authors such as Mino Maccari, Ardengo Soffici, Leo Longanesi), on the other, there is Stracittà (Massimo Bontempelli, Nino Frank, Corrado Alvaro and other authors orbiting around the journal entitled “900”). Strapaese tends to be associated with watchwords such as the defence of tradition, hostility towards the importation of foreign ideas, and overt adherence to facism. The supporters of Stracittà are presented as the defenders of modernity, favouring cultural exchange with Europe, close to the Parisian avant-garde, and, in as far as politics are concerned, inclined to avoid taking an explicit stance. They are also thought to have had a different attitude toward translation; whereas the troublemakers of Strapaese are supposed to have underestimated the importance of translation under the pretext that the “Italian spirit” was untranslatable, the adherents of Stracittà underlined the part played by translation in enhancing the value of literary works. In fact, they considered translatability to be one of the criteria by which the value of texts could be determined. In this study I try to look beyond this schematic vision, which does not take into account how varied the trajectories or positionings of the “movements” often were, or what transformations their views underwent. By retracing what determined their positions and looking into the socio-literary dynamics that bound them (the social and literary trajectories of the main protagonists, the connections between their positions, various tendencies and instances of position-taking, alliances, and the struggles for the monopoly over literary legitimacy) one can trace the origin of the said opposition, explain the apparent contradictions that speak from the analysis of the two groups’ activities, and attempt to reply to a series of questions that the entire scene raises. What are the issues that lie at the root of this division and serve as a basis for dispatching the adherents to either one or the other of the two camps ? Is a clearcut division as justified for their literary choices as it is for their political views ? Why did some change camps ? What shape do the opposition and positioning take within the two movements ? Is there a link between the choice for one camp rather than the other on a national level, and the positions that the members of either side take on the international literary scene ? A considerable part of the Italian culture of the fascist era is implicated in this confrontation. It is therefore a particularly revealing vantage point from which to throw a new light on the functioning of this particular cultural scene, within a totalitarian context, especially with regard to the relations between the literary and political stances of those involved, as well as the connections between their national and international logics.

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