Sardinian Literary Spring is a definition of the whole body of the

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

produced in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

from around the 1980s onwards.

History

About the denomination

Sardinian Literary Spring, also known as Sardinian Literary Nouvelle Vague, is a denomination normally used to describe the literary works written by

Sardinians Sardinians or Sards are an Italians, Italian ethno-linguistic group and a nation indigenous to Sardinia, an island in the western Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean which is administratively an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special st ...

from around the 1980s. It is described as being formed of novels and other written texts (and sometimes also of cinema, theatre and other works of art), which often share stylistic and thematic constants. They form a kind of

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

with features that derive mainly, but not only, from the Sardinian, Italian, and European context and history. The Sardinian Literary Spring is considered to be one of the most remarkable regional literatures in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, but sometimes also written in one of the island's minority languages (the most prominent of which being the

Sardinian language Sardinian or Sard ( , , , , or , ) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia. The original character of the Sardinian language among the Romance idioms has long been know ...

, in addition to the other Romance varieties spoken in Sardinia, namely Corsican, Catalan, and Genoese). The definition of 'spring' or 'nouvelle vague' or plainly 'new Sardinian literature' is due to the new quality, quantity, and international success of many works published by these Sardinian authors, translated in many world languages.

Initiators, predecessors and followers

The Sardinian Literary Spring was started, according to a mostly shared canonical opinion, by a trio formed of

Giulio Angioni Giulio Angioni (28 October 1939 – 12 January 2017) was an Italian writer and anthropologist. Biography Angioni was a leading Italian anthropologist, professor at the University of Cagliari and fellow of St Antony's College of the University o ...

Sergio Atzeni Sergio Atzeni (14 October 1952 in Capoterra – 6 September 1995 in Carloforte) was an Italian writer. Life and career Born in Capoterra, southern Sardinia, Atzeni lived in Orgosolo during his childhood until he moved to Cagliari where, as a ...

and

Salvatore Mannuzzu Salvatore Mannuzzu (7 March 1930 – 10 September 2019) was an Italian writer, politician, and magistrate. Life Mannuzzu was born in Pitigliano. He was a magistrate until 1976 and a member of the Italian Parliament until 1987. He is considered ...

, and then continued by authors such as Salvatore Niffoi,

Alberto Capitta Alberto Capitta (born 1954 in Sassari) is an Italian writer. Biography Alberto Capitta currently lives and works in Sassari as an actor and playwright. His novel ''Creaturine'' (Il Maestrale 2004, Frassinelli 2005) was finalist for the Strega ...

, Giorgio Todde,

Michela Murgia Michela Murgia (, ; 3 June 1972 – 10 August 2023) was an Italian novelist, playwright, and radio personality. She was a winner of the Campiello Prize, the Mondello International Literary Prize and , and was an active feminist and left-wing v ...

, Flavio Soriga, Milena Agus, Francesco Abate, and many others. The Sardinian Literary Spring is considered to be also the contemporary result, in the European arena, of the works of Sardinian individual prominent figures such as

Grazia Deledda Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (; or Gràtzia Deledda ; 27 September 1871 – 15 August 1936) was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity p ...

, Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1926,

Emilio Lussu Emilio Lussu (4 December 1890 – 5 March 1975) was a Sardinian people, Sardinian and Italian writer, anti-fascist intellectual, military officer, Italian resistance movement, partisan, and politician. He is also the author of the novel ''One Yea ...

Giuseppe Dessì Giuseppe Dessì (7 August 1909 – 6 July 1977) was an Italian novelist, short-story writer and playwright from Sardinia. His novel ''Paese d'ombre'' won the 1972 Strega Prize and was translated into English as ''The Forests of Norbio''. Dessì ...

Gavino Ledda Gavino Ledda (; born 30 December 1938) is an author and a scholar of the Italian language and of Sardinian. He is best known for his autobiographical work '' Padre Padrone'' (1975). Biography Early life Ledda was born in Siligo, in the Provi ...

Salvatore Satta Salvatore Satta (9 August 1902 in Nuoro – 19 April 1975 in Rome) was an Italian jurist and writer. He is famous for the novel ''The Day of Judgment (novel), The Day of Judgment'' (orig. ) (1975), and for several important studies on civil law. ...

, and others.

(1952 - 1995) worked for some of the most important Sardinian newspapers. Member of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

, but later disillusioned with politics, he left

and travelled across Europe. All of Atzeni's works are set in Sardinia. He used a very original language that fused elegant literary Italian and the "patter" used by the working-class in Cagliari and Sardinia. In some of his novels (e.g. ''Il quinto passo è l'addio'' and ''Bellas mariposas'') he also used techniques akin to the

magic realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical re ...

style of many Southern American authors, and he has been followed by other Sardinian authors, such as

, Giorgio Todde, and Salvatore Niffoi, who in 2006, with the novel ''La vedova scalza'' (''The barefoot widow''), won the popular

Premio Campiello The ''Premio Campiello'' is an annual Italian literary prize. A jury of literary experts (''giuria di letterati'' in Italian) identifies books published during the year and, in a public hearing, selects five of those as finalists. These books ...

(born 1939) is a leading Italian anthropologist. He is also well known as the author of about twenty books of fiction and poetry. Angioni writes mostly in Italian, but also in Sardinian. He has inaugurated a linguistic style which switches from the standard Italian to the regional (Sardinian) Italian and other linguistic varieties, in an original mixture of his own, but also followed by other Sardinian authors. Angioni's best novels are considered to be ''Le fiamme di Toledo'' (''Flames of Toledo''), '' Assandira'', ''La pelle intera'', ''Doppio cielo'' (''Double sky''), ''L'oro di Fraus''. (''The gold of Fraus'').

’s (born 1930) most successful novel is ''Procedura'' (1988, ''Einaudi''), winner of Italy's

Premio Viareggio The Viareggio Prize ( 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 Repaci, to rival the Milanese Bagutta Prize. List of recip ...

in 1989. In 2000 the director Antonello Grimaldi has made the film ''Un delitto impossibile'' from this novel, which is also considered (with the coeval ''L'oro di Fraus'' by

) the origin of a genre of Sardinian detective stories (called ''giallo sardo''). with authors such as

Marcello Fois Marcello Fois (born 20 January 1960) is an Italians, Italian writer. He was born in Nuoro in Sardinia and studied at the University of Bologna. His first novel ''Ferro Recente'' was published in 1989. A prolific author, he has also written scripts ...

and Giorgio Todde, who gave birth to the Literary Festival of

Gavoi Gavoi is a ''comune'' in central Sardinia (Italy), part of the province of Nuoro, in the natural region of Barbagia. It overlooks Lake Gusana. History The territory of Gavoi is inhabited since the prenuragic period. During the middleage is cit ...

, L'isola delle storie, with Giulio Angioni, Flavio Soriga, and other authors.

Notes and references

Bibliography

*A. M. Amendola, ''L'isola che sorprende. La narrativa sarda in italiano (1974-2006)'', Cagliari, CUEC 200, 160-179. *

, ''Cartas de logu: scrittori sardi allo specchio'', Cagliari, CUEC, 2007. *M. Broccia, ''The Sardinian Literary Spring: An Overview. A New Perspective on Italian Literature'', in "Nordicum Mediterraneum", Vol. 9, no. 1 (201

* Carlo Dionisotti, ''Geografia e storia della letteratura italiana'', Torino, Einaudi, 1999. *E. Hall, ''Greek tragedy and the politics of subjectivity in recent fiction'', "Classical Receptions Journal", 1 (1), 23-42,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2009. *H. Klüver, ''Gebrauchsanweisungen für Sardinien'', München,

Piper Verlag Piper Verlag is a German publisher based in Munich, printing both fiction and non-fiction works. It currently prints over 200 new paperback titles per year. Authors published by the company include Andreas von Bülow and Sara Paretsky. It is ow ...

, 2012. *C. Lavinio, ''Narrare un'isola. Lingua e stile di scrittori sardi'', Roma, Bulzoni, 1991. *F. Manai, ''Cosa succede a Fraus? Sardegna e mondo nel racconto di Giulio Angioni'', Cagliari, CUEC, 2006. *M. Marras, ''Ecrivains insulaires et auto-représentation'', "Europaea", VI, 1-2 (2000), 17-77. *A. Ottavi, ''Les romanciers italiens contemporains'', Paris,

Hachette Hachette may refer to: * Hachette (surname) * Hachette Livre, a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing ** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary ** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm See also * Hachette Fil ...

, 1992, 142-145. *S. Paulis, ''La costruzione dell'identità. Per un'analisi antropologica della narrativa in Sardegna fra '800 e '900'', Sassari, EdeS, 2006. *L. Schröder, ''Sardinienbilder. Kontinuitäten und Innovationen in der sardischen Literatur und Publizistik der Nachkriegszeit'', Bern, Peter Lang, 2000. *

George Steiner Francis George Steiner, Fellow of the British Academy#Fellowship, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between ...

, One thousand years of solitude: on Salvatore Satta, in G. Steiner, ''At the New Yorker'', New York, New Directions Pub. Corp., 2009, *F. Toso, ''La Sardegna che non parla sardo'', Cagliari, CUEC, University Press, 2012. *S. Tola, ''La letteratura in lingua sarda. Testi, autori, vicende'', Cagliari, CUEC, 2006. *B. Wagner, ''Sardinien, Insel im Dialog. Texte, Diskurse, Filme'', Tübingen, Francke Verlag 2008.

External links

Dettori, Giovanni (2019). ''Regional Identity in Contemporary Sardinian Writing'', EuropeNow, Council for European Studies (CES)
*New Sardinian literature
Italica Press: Atzeni's BiographyAtzeni's biography and work
*Sardinian ''Nouvelle vague''

*Sardegna Digital Library

*About ''Accabadora'' in English

{{Authority control Italian literature Literary theory Literature about literature Literary movements Italian books Sardinian literature 20th-century Italian literature 21st-century Italian literature