Francesco Leonetti (27 January 1924 – 17 December 2017) was an Italian poet, novelist, art critic, teacher and political activist.

Biography

Leonetti was born in

Cosenza Cosenza (; Languages of Calabria#Northern Calabrian (Cosentian), Cosentian: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city located in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000, while the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. ...

in Calabria. In 1955 he moved to

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

to study philosophy. There he met

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

and

Roberto Roversi Roberto Roversi (28 January 1923 – 14 September 2012) was an Italian poet, writer and journalist. Biography Born in Bologna, he participated as an adolescent to the Italian resistance movement in Piedmont. From 1948 to 2006 he managed the antiq ...

, and together they co-founded the magazine ''Officina''. In the 1960s he co-founded with Elio Vittorini and

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, ; ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian novelist and short story writer. His best-known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosm ...

the literary magazine ''Il Menabò''. In 1963 he joined the

Neoavanguardia The Neoavanguardia ("New Vanguard") was a postmodern avant-garde literature of Italy, Italian literary movement oriented towards radical forms of experimentation with language and art. Some of its most prominent members include Nanni Balestrini, E ...

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

Italian

literary movement Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

. Leonetti collaborated with Pasolini again in 1964, playing the part of

Herod Antipas Herod Antipas (, ''Hērṓidēs Antípas''; ) was a 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea. He bore the title of tetrarch ("ruler of a quarter") and is referred to as both "Herod the Tetrarch" and "King Herod" in the New Testament. He was a s ...

in '' The Gospel According to St. Matthew''. He also provided the voice of the sparrow in '' The Hawks and the Sparrows'' (1966) and played the part of the servant Laio in the 1967 film ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' (, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles. While some scholars have argued that the play was first performed , this is highly uncertain. Originally, to ...

''. In the 1970s he co-edited with

Nanni Balestrini Nanni Balestrini (2 July 1935 – 19 May 2019) was an Italian experimental poet, author and visual artist of the Neoavanguardia movement. Context Nanni Balestrini is associated with the Italian writers' movement Neoavanguardia. He wrote fo ...

the magazine '' Alfabeta''. In 1974 he authored a monograph on Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro. From 1975 to 1995 he taught Aesthetics at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

in Milan.

Selected works

* ''Sopra una perduta estate'' (1942) * ''La cantica'' (1959) * ''L’incompleto'' (1964) * ''Irati e sereni'' (1974) * ''Conoscenza per errore (studente a Bologna del 48–49)'' (1978) * ''In uno scacco'' (1979) * ''Campo di battaglia'' (1981) * ''Palla di filo'' (1986) * ''La vita e gli amici'' (1992) * ''La voce del corvo. Una vita (1940–2001)'' (2002) * ''Scritti estremi di rabbia e di gioco. Narrazione, poesie, scene e prose'' (2005) * ''Una come un'altra'' (2015)

Filmography

References

1924 births 2017 deaths People from Cosenza Gruppo 63 Italian male poets 20th-century Italian poets 21st-century Italian poets Italian male novelists 20th-century Italian novelists 21st-century Italian novelists Italian activists 20th-century Italian male writers 21st-century Italian male writers Academic staff of Brera Academy Italian magazine editors Italian male actors Italian art critics Italian male non-fiction writers Italian LGBTQ poets Italian LGBTQ novelists {{Italy-writer-stub