Elio Vittorini

Vittorini, Elio 

Born July 27, 1908, in Syracuse, Sicily; died Feb. 12, 1966, in Milan. Italian writer.

Vittorini’s first collection of short stories, The Petite Bourgeoisie (1931), clearly expresses elements of antifascist political satire. In his best book, Conversation in Sicily (1941), an allegorical protest against the military adventures and demagoguery of fascism is interwoven with a description of the actual life and misery of the Sicilian peasantry. The novel Good and Bad People (1945; Russian translation, 1969) is devoted to the epic of the Resistance.

Vittorini’s postwar works, including The Women of Messina (1949) and Erika and Her Brothers (1956), describe the hard life and moral courage of the Italian poor. Diary Open to the Public (1957) is a collection of his publicistic articles from 1929 to 1956. Vittorini’s works and his activity as a journalist had an influence on the development of postwar realist prose in Italy.

WORKS

Il Sempione strizza I’occhio al Frejus. Milan, 1947.
Erica e i suoi fratelli: La Garibaldina. Milan, 1956.
Il garofano rosso. [Verona] 1958-Conversazione in Sicilia. [Turin] 1966.
Cittá del mondo. Turin, 1969.
In Russian translation:
“Erika,” Inostrannaia literatura, 1960, no. 9.
“Moia voina.” In Ital’ianskaia novella XX veka. Moscow, 1969.

REFERENCES

Potapova, Z. M. “Realisticheskie traditsii v ital’ianskoi literature 30-kh godov.” In Zarubezhnaia literatura v 30-e gody XX veka. Moscow, 1969.
Addamo, S. Vittorini e la narrativa siciliana contemporanea. Caltanisseta-Rome [1962].
Salinari, C. Preludio e fine del realismo in Italia. Naples, 1967.
Calvino, I. Vittorini: Progettazione e letteratura. Milan, 1968.
Heiney, D. Three Italian Novelists: Moravia, Pavese, Vittorini. Ann Arbor [1968].

Z. M. POTAPOVA