Corrado Alvaro (15 April 1895 – 11 June 1956) was an Italian journalist and
writer of novels
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
, short stories, screenplays and plays. He often used the ''
verismo
In opera, ''verismo'' (, from , meaning "true") was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini.
''Verismo'' as an ...
'' style to describe the hopeless poverty in his native
Calabria. His first success was ''Gente in Aspromonte'' (Revolt in Aspromonte), which examined the exploitation of rural peasants by greedy landowners in Calabria, and is considered by many critics to be his masterpiece.
Biography
He was born in
San Luca
San Luca is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about east of Reggio Calabria. The town is situated on the eastern slopes of the Aspromonte mo ...
, a small village in the southernmost region of Calabria. His father Antonio was a primary school teacher and founded an evening school for farmers and illiterate shepherds. Alvaro was educated at
Jesuit boarding schools in Rome and Umbria. He graduated with a degree in literature in 1919 at the
University of Milan
The University of Milan ( it, Università degli Studi di Milano; la, Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest uni ...
and began working as a journalist and literary critic for two daily newspapers, ''
Il Resto di Carlino'' of
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
and the ''
Corriere della Sera
The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015.
First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of I ...
'' of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4  ...
.
He served as an officer in the Italian army during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. After being wounded in both arms, he spend a long time in military hospitals. After the war he worked as a correspondent in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
(France) for the anti-Fascist paper
Il Mondo of
Giovanni Amendola
Giovanni Amendola (15 April 1882 – 7 April 1926) was an Italian journalist, professor and politician, noted as an opponent of Italian Fascism.
Biography
Early life and education
Amendola was born in Naples on 15 April 1882. He moved to Rome, ...
. In 1925, he supported the
Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals
The Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, written by Benedetto Croce in response to the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals by Giovanni Gentile, sanctioned the irreconcilable split between the philosopher and the Fascist government of ...
written by the philosopher
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952)
was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a ...
.
In 1926 he published his first novel ''L'uomo nel labirinto'' (Man in the Labyrinth), which explored the growth of
Fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...
in Italy in the 1920s. A staunch democrat with strong anti-Fascist views, Alvaro's politics made him the target of surveillance of
Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until Fall of the Fascist re ...
's
Fascist
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...
regime. He was forced to leave Italy and during the 1930s he traveled widely in western Europe, the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
, and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. Journeys he later recounted in his travel essays. ''L'uomo è forte'' (1938; Man Is Strong), written after a trip in the Soviet Union, is a defense of the individual against the oppression of
totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
.
After World War II Alvaro returned to Italy. He again worked for prominent daily newspapers as special correspondent, theater and film critic, and editor. He was elected secretary of the
Italian Association of Writers
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
in 1947, a post he held until his death in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in 1956. He is buried in
Vallerano
Vallerano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region Latium, located about northwest of Rome and about southeast of Viterbo.
Vallerano borders the following municipalities: Canepina, Caprarola, Carbognano ...
.
Literary career
Initially, Alvaro's literary efforts did not enjoy great success. Critics praised his first novel ''L'uomo nel labirinto'' (Man in the Labyrinth) for its portrayal of
alienation
Alienation may refer to:
* Alienation (property law), the legal transfer of title of ownership to another party
* ''Alienation'' (video game), a 2016 PlayStation 4 video game
* "Alienation" (speech), an inaugural address by Jimmy Reid as Rector ...
of individuals and society as a whole. His subsequent works, ''L'amata alla finestra'', ''Gente in Aspromonte'', ''La signora dell'isola'', and ''Vent'anni'' established him as an important writer. A jury that included the noted Italian
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while othe ...
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello (; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power ...
awarded him a prize of 50,000 lire given by the newspaper ''
La Stampa
''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy.
History and profile
The paper was fou ...
'' in 1931 for ''Gente in Aspromonte''.
In 1951 he won the
Strega Prize
The Strega Prize ( it, Premio Strega ) is the most prestigious Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published ...
(Premio Strega) – Italy's 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
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music ( pastorale) that de ...
way of life, and the aspiration to achieve material success that attracts people to the city. He died in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
.
He was one of the first authors to mention the
'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a prominent Italian Mafia-type organized crime syndicate and secret society, criminal society based in the peninsular and mountainous region of Calabria and dating back to the late 18th century. It is considered one of ...
– the
mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of ...
-style criminal association in his native Calabria – in several short stories and in an article published in the ''Corriere della Sera'' in 1955.
The pentiti's contribution to conceptualization of the mafia phenomenon
by Letizia Paoli, in The New European Criminology (Vincenzo Ruggiero, Nigel South, Ian R. Taylor eds., Routledge, 1998
), p. 272
Works
* ''Polsi, nell'arte, nella leggenda, e nella storia'' (1912)
* ''Poesie grigioverdi'' (1917)
* ''La siepe e l'orto'' (1920)
* ''L'uomo del labirinto'' (1926)
* ''L'amata alla finestra'' (1929)
* ''Vent'anni'' (1930)
* ''Gente in Aspromonte'' (''Revolt in Aspromonte'', 1930. Won the prize of the newspaper ''La Stampa
''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy.
History and profile
The paper was fou ...
'' in 1931)
* ''La signora dell'isola; racconti'' (1931)
* ''Maestri del diluvio; viaggio nella Russia sovietica'' (1935)
* ''L'uomo è forte'' (''Man Is Strong'', 1938. Won the literature prize of the Accademia d'Italia
The Royal Academy of Italy ( it, Reale Accademia d'Italia, italic=no) was a short-lived Italian academy of the Fascist period. It was created on 7 January 1926 by royal decree,See reference . but was not inaugurated until 28 October 1929. It was e ...
in 1940)
* ''Incontri d'amore'' (1940)
* ''Viaggio in Russia'' (1943)
* ''L'età breve'' (1946; first novel in the series ''Memorie del mondo sommerso'')
* ''Lunga notte di Medea, tragedia in due tempi'' (1949)
* ''Quasi una vita. Giornale di uno scrittore'' (1950. Winner of Strega Prize
The Strega Prize ( it, Premio Strega ) is the most prestigious Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published ...
1951)
* ''Il nostro tempo e la speranza. Saggi di vita contemporanea'' (1952)
* ''Un fatto di cronaca. Settantacinque racconti'' (1955)
* ''Colore di Berlino. Viaggio in Germania'' (2001)
Selected filmography
* ''Adam's Tree
''Adam's Tree'' (Italian: ''L'albero di Adamo'') is a 1936 Italian " white-telephones" comedy film directed by Mario Bonnard and starring Elsa Merlini, Antonio Gandusio and Renato Cialente.Goble p.663
The film's sets were designed by the art dir ...
'' (1936)
* '' A Woman Between Two Worlds'' (1936)
* ''No Man's Land
No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...
'' (1939)
* '' Carmela'' (1942)
* '' Headlights in the Fog'' (1942)
* ''Resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...
'' (1944)
* '' Pact with the Devil'' (1950)
* '' Women Without Names'' (1950)
References
*
Biografia di Corrado Alvaro (1895 - 1956)
at Rai International
Corrado Alvaro 1896-1956
at enotes.com
*
Fondazione Corrado Alvaro
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvaro, Corrado
1895 births
1956 deaths
People from San Luca
Italian male journalists
20th-century Italian novelists
20th-century Italian male writers
Italian anti-fascists
Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals
University of Milan alumni
Strega Prize winners
20th-century Italian journalists
Italian military personnel of World War I