With a way of telling life that sees the coexistence of simplicity and complexity, Attilio Bertolucci thrilled through intense poems that make him a great name in Italian literature of the twentieth century.
Who was Attilio Bertolucci
Attilio Bertoluccthe (San Prospero Parmense, November 18, 1911 – Rome, June 14, 2000) was an Italian poet.
He grew up near Parma in a middle-class family and attended elementary school with great pleasure, starting in writing poetry since childhood. Growing up he became passionate about music, especially Verdi’s classical one, which he deepened over the years at the Maria Luigia national boarding school. Here he also knows famous people like Cesare Zavattini and Pietro Bianchi with whom he remains in contact even afterwards.
He then enrolled in Law at the University of Parma and then understood that he was more suited to literary subjects.
He then moved to Bologna and enrolled in the Faculty of Arts where he met Giorgio Bassani during the courses.
Attilio Bertolucci and the beginning of his career
After university, he is hired as Italian and art teacher in the same boarding school that saw him grow up and in the meantime he devoted himself to poetic production.
In 1929 he publishes “Sirio” and several years later “Fires in November” who are supported by the numerous writers known in those years in Parma.
The literary activity has the opportunity to continue only after the Second World War. Start working for the Official of Parma dealing with issues related to the world of art and cinema. In 1951 he moved to Rome and here he dedicated himself to publication of lyrics as “The Indian hut” and starts working in world of television. He creates screenplays for Rai, in the meantime he collaborates with different magazines and continues to work as a teacher. In these Roman years he also established important relationships with Pier Paolo Pasolini and Carlo Emilio Gadda.
Due to some health problems he is forced to spend a few moments in Parma where he can recover his strength. In the meantime he published in 1971 the “Winter Travel” collection and many years later his poem comes out “Bedroom”. The last work he realizes is “The lizard of Casarola” in 1997 before he died in Rome in 2000 surrounded by his family.
Poetics by Attilio Bertolucci
Bertolucci’s poetics can be inserted into what is defined anti-twentieth century line and which includes large pens such as Saba, Caproni or Giudici and takes up Pascoli’s crepuscular style on the one hand and Ungaretti’s hermetics on the other. Between themes that he treats within his poems there is no lack of reference to his hometown and the countryside landscape that has seen him grow. THE childhood places they are described both according to a realistic line and through a symbolic dimension.
The metrics they vary greatly, alternating between long or good lyrics, with free or intertwined verses. It also tends to use oxymorons a lot and address the reader directly through a language that creates empathy. The author also has the great ability to succeed grasp the beauty of small things and to tell them with great simplicity. The following verse is an example:
“Absence,
more acute presence.
Vague thoughts of you
vague memories
disturb the calm hour
and the sweet sun.
Chest sore
it brings you,
like a stone
light. “