Unitary language and dialect
As a reminder of the French Revolution, the idea of a unified homeland began to emerge in Italy at the end of the 18th century, and it was France again, in the guise of Napoleon Bonaparte, that reshuffled the deck by annexing some of the northern states. From uprisings to tears, from insurrections to wars of independence, the political game between bordering nations ended up in 1861 with an Italy close to the one we are familiar with today. But it was still necessary to unite these peoples whose most notable difference lay in the multitude of dialects spoken. Until then, Tuscan had been favored by writers; Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, the "three crowns", had already favored it, and it seemed natural to retain it as the only national language. However, in this nation in the making, where most of the people are illiterate, it is still necessary to create a bridge between written and spoken language.
One man was to contribute to this and thus earn his letters of nobility, Alessandro Manzoni, who published his masterpiece, The Betrothed, a tragic story of thwarted love, in 1825. But he was not satisfied with this first version, which he considered inaccessible, his Tuscan being too elitist. He then decided to confront himself with the florentino vivo, that is to say the language of Florence, in order to rework his text and to model it as much as possible on what he heard. To do this, with the help of two friends, he "rinsed his sheets in the Arno". A revised, simplified and definitive version appeared in 1840. Manzoni did not stop at this literary action; in 1868 he invested himself politically and socially by presiding, at the request of the Minister of Public Instruction, over a commission charged with the diffusion and national promotion of the renewed Tuscan language, in particular through the distribution of school manuals, because everything had to be invented and it was the new generation that would serve as a springboard
His novel will become one of the symbols of the unification that is underway and that is referred to as Risorgimento, "rebirth", which is debated and discussed in Turin cafes: it is doubly so, both by the language, therefore, and by the theme, because the Italians have found another common point, the attraction for romanticism. However, there is a gulf between choosing a common language and imposing it - so it was only in 1999 that a decree made it explicit that the official language of the Republic is Italian.
The 20th century
In 1902 Carlo Levi was born in Turin. After graduating from the University of Medicine, he preferred to devote himself to painting and above all to the fight against Fascism, which was gradually eating away at the country. Arrested in 1935, he was sentenced to exile in southern Italy and to house arrest in the small village of Aliano. From these two years, which marked him to the point that his last wish was to be buried there after his death in 1975, he brought back a book, one of the greatest and most beautiful classics of Italian literature, Le Christ s'est arrêté à Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli), available from Folio Editions. In this autobiography, published just after the Second World War, he recounts a neglected region and its inhabitants abandoned to their fate, and in an unprecedented style he becomes a singer of misery and desolation.
Another testimony, published in 1947 by his almost homonymous Primo Levi, also born in Turin in 1919, also moved the readers, although the first edition remained confidential and it was not until 15 years later that his voice was finally heard. If He Is a Man describes the author's deportation to Auschwitz in February 1944 and survival inside the extermination camp. After his miraculous return, Primo Levi seems to restart a normal life, he writes this text with the support of Lucia, his future wife, whom he has just met, resumes work, becomes a father for the first time in 1948. However, it is impossible for him to forget, as the world around him seems ready to do, so he begins to militate. His first text was republished in 1958, translated into English and then into German, and he began writing La Trêve, which recounts his journey to return to Italy, published in 1963. He was listened to and recognized, the press finally spoke of him, but despite everything, that year was marked by the signs of a depression from which he would never emerge. Primo Levi continued to write, to travel, to give conferences, to make sure that the unthinkable and the insurmountable would not be forgotten. He lost his life in 1987 in a fall from a staircase, which many believe was voluntary.
The death of Cesare Pavese, on August 27, 1950 in Turin, left no room for doubt, the man committed suicide, as confirmed by the note he left in his room at the Hotel Roma, the last sentence of his last novel, Death will come and it will have your eyes, and a note in his diary that will be published two years later under the title The Business of Living. A short life, barely 42 years old, and yet an immense, dense and eternal work.
