Literature and Resistance: Dimensions of Commitment in the Writings of Beppe Fenoglio and the Italian Neorealists Ian Seed, B.A. Hons., M.A. Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD November 2012 Department of European Languages and Cultures ProQuest Number: 11003748 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11003748 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Declaration This thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in substantially the same form for publication or for the award of a higher degree elsewhere. ii Ian Seed, B.A. (Hons), M.A. Abstract of thesis November 2012 Literature and Resistance: Dimensions of Commitment in the Writings of Beppe Fenoglio and the Italian Neorealists This thesis investigates the different layers of commitment in the writings of Beppe Fenoglio and the Italian neorealists. This involves a reassessment of the neorealist literature of the 1940s and early 1950s, which I argue is far more varied, exploratory and experimental than is generally given credit for. I contend that Fenoglio’s writing has a much closer relationship to neorealism than many critics believe. However, it is also the case to say that no partisan author is as critical of the Resistance as Beppe Fenoglio was. What then is the nature of his commitment? Through an examination of Fenoglio’s Resistance writings, together with an appraisal of the historical and cultural context in which they were created, I show that Fenoglio’s work is driven by a profound moral realism which continually searches for new ways to confront the traumatic nature of civil war and its aftermath. The focus of this examination is on the following works: Appunti partigiani; the Resistance short stories contained in I ventitre giorni della citta di Alba; II partigiano Johnny (taken as a whole to include Primavera di bellezza and Ur partigiano Johnny)', Una questione privata; and in conclusion one of Fenoglio’s last short stories ‘Ciao, Old Lion’. Drawing on existential models, I make the case that it is Fenoglio who uniquely out of the neorealist writers explores what it means to be individually ‘authentic’ in times of momentous historical happenings while contemporaneously subverting the possibility of ‘authenticity’, thus leading to a fiction which is ‘true’, and which is more genuinely ‘authentic’. I show that there is no necessary contradiction between the ‘existential’ and ‘historical’ interpretations of Fenoglio’s work, which have dominated the debate between critics for the last four decades. Indeed, I argue that the two critical approaches should be married in order to enrich our understanding of Fenoglio’s complex vision of the Resistance and the significance of his achievement. Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors Maurice Slawinski and Frederic Barbera for their support and advice at different times throughout the last five years. I would also like to thank Graham Bartram, my supervisor from October 2011 to April 2012, whose close reading was invaluable to me in the final stages of writing this thesis. I am grateful to Linda Gilmour for helping me find my way through university procedures, and to the friendly and endlessly patient staff at the university library for their assistance in locating and obtaining books and articles. My warm thanks to the historical novelist George Green for some sustaining chats over coffee. These acknowledgements would be incomplete if I did not express my deepest gratitude to Roberto Bigazzi, who took the time to read through these chapters in various stages, who met up with me one day in London in the summer of 2011 to discuss my work in progress, and whose words have been a constant source of inspiration to me. Finally, infinite thanks go to Justyna and Chiara for their support even in those times when my reading, writing and absent-mindedness have been considerably disruptive to family life. iv CONTENTS Abstract of thesis...................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................................iv Abbreviations of Works Cited ................................................................................................ vii Note on Editions U sed ............................................................................................................. vii Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 The Historical Background..................................................................................................... 1 The Moral Dimension of the Resistance ............................................................................... 6 The Neorealists.......................................................................................................................11 Beppe Fenoglio and Neorealism .......................................................................................... 16 Chapter 1: Neorealist Literature: an Overview and Reappraisal..........................................28 1.1. Origins, Definitions and Characteristics of Neorealism ............................................29 1.1.1 Origin of the Term ‘Neorealismo’ .........................................................................32 1.1.2 Literary and ‘Non-Literary’ Influences on Neorealism.......................................34 1.1.3 Characteristics of Neorealist Literature................................................................ 38 1.2 Neorealist Genres ............................................................................................................ 46 1.2.1 Memoirs and Documents ........................................................................................46 1.2.2 Short Stories ..............................................................................................................53 1.2.3 N ovels ....................................................................................................................... 59 1.3 Neorealism and Its Critics .............................................................................................. 73 Chapter 2: Resistance versus Civil War: Neorealism and Commitment in Fenoglio’s Early Writings ....................................................................................................90 2.1 Fenoglio’s Early Years: the Making of a Partisan .......................................................90 2.2 Notions of a Committed Literature ............................................................................... 97 2.3 Appunti partigiani..........................................................................................................102 2.4 I ventitre giorni della citta di Alba..............................................................................117 2.5 Lapaga del sabato........................................................................................................ 137 2.6 La malora........................................................................................................................140 Chapter 3: Historical and Existential Dimensions of Commitment: II partigiano Johnny as a Modem Bildungsroman............................................................. 145 3.1 The Concept of a Modem Bildungsroman..................................................................152 3.2. The Different Versions of IIpartigiano Johnny.......................................................154 3.3 The Historical Context of the 1950s ........................................................................... 158 3.4 IIpartigiano Johnny as Bildungsroman......................................................................161 3.4.1 La scelta.................................................................................................................. 161 3.4.2 Authenticity / Inauthenticity and the Tragi-Comic............................................ 176 3.4.3 The Commitment to Historical Reality ................................................................183 3.4.4 The Testing of Johnny’s Commitment ................................................................193 3.4.5. The Meaning of Absolute Commitment ............................................................ 198 3.5 Fenoglio’s Use of Language as Commitment to Authenticity .................................207 3.6 The Resistance and Writing as ‘Ethical Demands’................................................. 219 Chapter 4: The Inner Journey: II partigiano Johnny and Una questione privata............ 222 4.1 IIpartigiano Johnny: the Search for the Celestial City............................................223 4.2 Private Questions and the Real: Una questione privata...........................................242 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................257