Rocco Scotellaro (19 April 1923 – 15 December 1953) was an Italian poet, writer and politician.

Life and career

Born in Tricarico, in the

Province of Matera The province of Matera ( it, Provincia di Matera; Materano: ) is a province in the Basilicata region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Matera. It has an area of and a total population of 201,133; the city Matera has a population of 61,204. Th ...

, the son of a shoemaker and a homemade seamstress, Scotellaro studied law at the Universities of Rome,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and Bari without graduating, as the early death of his father forced him to return to his hometown.Vitelli, Franco (2018).
Scotellaro, Rocco
. ''

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' ( en, Biographical Dictionary of the Italians) is a biographical dictionary published by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1925 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biogra ...

'', Volume 91.

Treccani The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' ( Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language ...

. In December 1943 he joined the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892 ...

, and after having been part of the local department of

National Liberation Committee The National Liberation Committee ( it, Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, CLN) was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against Nazi Germany’s forces during the German occup ...

in 1946 he became major of Tricarico.Iarussi, Oscar (2006).
Ritratti critici di contemporanei: Rocco Scotellaro
. ''Belfagor'', vol. 61, no. 2, Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki s.r.l. pp. 169–79. His tenure as major was inspired by the theories of vita activa by

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was bor ...

, and spent a great deal of effort in improving the living conditions of his fellow citizens. On 8 February 1950 Scotellaro was arrested for an alleged

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

; the subsequent trial acquitted him "for not having committed the fact and because the fact does not constitute an offence", and in their sentence the judges explicitly referred to the case as motivated by "a political vengeance", but as a consequence a then disillusioned Scotellaro left his office and his hometown. He then collaborated with the Agrarian Economics Observatory and with the Association for the Industrial Development of Southern Italy (SVIMEZ), studying various projects and reforms. Scotellaro suddenly died of a heart attack on 15 December 1953, at the age of 30. Almost all his literary works were published posthumously, and earned him critical acclaim as well as various prizes and awards, including the

Viareggio Prize The Viareggio Prize ( it, Premio Viareggio, italic=no or ) is an Italian literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Rèpaci, to rival the Milanese ...

in 1954. His style belongs to

New Realism New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

, and

Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale (; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature. Life and works Early years Montale was born in Genoa. His family were ch ...

described him as a "poeta contadino" ("peasant poet") and paired him to

Sergei Yesenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin ( rus, Сергей Александрович Есенин, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ jɪˈsʲenʲɪn; ( 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one o ...

and

Attila József Attila József (; 11 April 1905 – 3 December 1937) was one of the most famous Hungarians, Hungarian poets of the 20th century. Generally not recognized during his lifetime, József was hailed during the communist era of the 1950s as Hunga ...

In popular culture

* Upon his death, poet Amelia Rosselli composed the heartfelt collection ''Cantilena (poesie per Rocco Scotellaro)'' (1953) in his memory. *

Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the fat ...

's 1960 film ''

Rocco and His Brothers ''Rocco and His Brothers'' ( it, Rocco e i suoi fratelli) is a 1960 drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori, Katina Paxinou, Roger Hanin, Paolo Stoppa, and Claudia Cardinale in one of h ...

'' pays homage to Scotellaro in its title. * In 1979, he was portrayed by Bruno Cirino in the Rai Due television film ''Rocco Scotellaro'', which depicted his life.

References

External links

Rocco Scotellaro
at

Open Library Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scotellaro, Rocco 1923 births 1953 deaths People from the Province of Matera 20th-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian poets Italian male poets Italian Socialist Party politicians Sapienza University of Rome alumni University of Bari alumni University of Naples Federico II alumni Viareggio Prize winners