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THE NEW AVANT-GARDE IN ITALY: THEORETICAL DEBATE AND POETIC PRACTICES This page intentionally left blank JOHN PICCHIONE The New Avant-Garde in Italy Theoretical Debate and Poetic Practices UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2004 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-8994-1 Printed on acid-free paper Toronto Italian Studies National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Picchione, John, 1949- New avant-garde in Italy : theoretical debate and poetic practices / John Picchione. (Toronto Italian studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-8994-1 1. Italian poetry - 20th century - History and criticism. 2. Experimental poetry, Italian - History and criticism. 3. Avant-garde (Aesthetics) - Italy. I. Title. II. Series. PQ4113.P43 2004 851'.91409 C2004-900740-8 This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Contents PREFACE Vll ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix 1 Poetry in Revolt: The Novissimi 3 2 The Neoavanguardia and the Theoretical Debate 32 3 The Gestural and Schizoid Language of Alfredo Giuliani 81 4 Collage, Multilingualism, and Ideology: Elio Pagliarani's Epic Narratives 96 5 Edoardo Sanguined and the Labyrinth of Poetry 114 6 The Poetic Nomadism of Antonio Porta 129 7 Nanni Balestrini and the Invisibility of the Poetic T 148 8 Other Poets, Other Subversions 164 9 Crossing the Boundaries of the Word: The Visual Poets 180 10 Closing Remarks 192 NOTES 197 WORKS CITED 231 INDEX 243 This page intentionally left blank Preface The debate on literature and the arts provoked by the Italian neoavant- garde is undoubtedly one of the most animated and controversial that the country has witnessed from the Second World War to the present. Indeed, it embodies the last theoretical attempt to draw a general map of literature within the context of late capitalism and in the process, to offer a radical subversion of conventional aesthetic canons. Compris- ing roughly the period between the late 1950s and the end of the 1960s, the phenomenon of the neoavanguardia involved key writers, critics, and artists, both as insiders and as adversaries. Yet the critical attention the neoavanguardia has received outside Italy is rather scant. The theoretical positions represented by its major protagonists, such as Edoardo Sanguineti, Renato Barilli, Alfredo Giuliani, and Angelo Guglielmi, among others, remain virtually unknown beyond a restricted circle of Italianists. Even Umberto Eco, a prominent partici- pant in the debate and an internationally acclaimed author, is seldom identified with the neoavant-garde. Likewise, the involvement of opponents such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italo Calvino, or Alberto Mora- via, whose work has stirred substantial interest abroad, is not even acknowledged let alone given the attention it deserves. The objective of this book is twofold: to provide a comprehensive analysis of the theoretical tenets that inform the works of the Italian neoavant-garde, and to show how these tenets are applied in the poetic practices of its authors. The decision to exclude other genres, namely fiction and theatre, is dictated by the view that it would have been inadvisable to explore a vast number of authors, poetry collections, novels, and plays within the same volume. Furthermore, the decision rests on the conviction that poetry is the area in which the neoavant- garde was able to obtain its most remarkable results. viii Preface As will be argued, the neoavanguardia cannot be defined as a move- ment with a unified program expressed in the form of manifestos or shared theoretical principles. It experiences irreconcilable internal con- flicts that are explored as a split between two main blocs: one is tied to the project of modernity, the other to postmodern aesthetic postures. The first identifies literature's formal ruptures with a subversive social and ideological function. The second, considering literature as an inte- gral part of the culture industry of late capitalism, embodies the belief that there exist no pragmatic possibilities of antagonism - through aesthetic discourses - to the specific socio-political conditions of our times. This study suggests that some of the contentious views expressed by the neoavant-garde anticipate a wide range of issues that are at the basis of literary and art theory in the 1970s and 1980s, when North America in particular experienced an explosion of aesthetic ideas predominantly mediated by French thought. The claim here is not that the theories of the Italian neoavant-garde exhibit an unsurpassed degree of autonomy or an unparalleled spirit of innovation; indeed, as will be underscored, the neoavanguardia's theoretical positions and literary practices cannot be disengaged from a number of aesthetic models that include the American avant-garde (Pound, Olson, Cage), the Frankfurt School, Abstract Expressionism, post-Weberian music, and the nouveau roman. Rather, the book's intent is to show that the neoavant-garde was able to produce a rich and complex theoretical orientation and a body of cre- ative works that have contributed to questioning, in a radical way, received notions of poetry and literature. In the context of the aesthetic perspectives of the second half of twen- tieth century, the neoavanguardia represents one of the most courageous attempts to evaluate the specificity of literature within the structures of our social and cultural institutions and, at the same time, to locate possibilities for re-stablishing a connection with the project of the historical avant-garde (Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism) which had been totally abandoned by the literary movements of the preceding decades. It is hoped this study will also serve as an incentive for further investiga- tions in North America and the English-speaking world as a whole. Undoubtedly, the neoavant-garde deserves much more critical attention than it has received thus far, both as a phenomenon in itself and as a significant point of reference for comparative studies in literary theory and practices. Even though over three decades have passed since its demise, the issues it addressed continue to be fundamental and press- ing for understanding the possible functions of literature in our age. Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to the Social Sciences and Human- ities Research Council of Canada and to the York University Faculty Association for the financial assistance they granted to this project, assistance that was vital to my carrying out research in Italy on several occasions. I also wish to thank York University's Faculty of Arts for a fellowship that released me from teaching responsibilities and thus provided precious time for writing this book; Dr Ron Schoeffel, editor- in-chief, and Anne Laughlin, managing editor, at the University of Toronto Press, for their kind support; and my copy editor, Curtis Fahey, who provided many valuable suggestions. I am grateful, too, to Achille Perilli for giving me permission to reproduce on the book's jacket two of his lithographs. Finally, I owe special thanks to the anon- ymous readers of the Press for their positive comments and construc- tive recommendations.