From St Francis to Aldo Palazzeschi. Italian literature in Mikhail Osorgin’s Essays on Modern Italy [Ocherki sovremennoy Italii]

The article draws on the author’s speech notes and comments prepared for the first reprint of M. Osorgin’s Essays on Modern Italy [Ocherki sovremennoy Italii]. Osorgin’s book discusses Italian literature by giving an overview of D’Annunzio’s and Pascoli’s poetry, Fogazzaro’s prose, Benelli’s plays, and Marinetti’s and Palazzeschi’s Futurist writings. Osorgin’s method included reliance on an authoritative source combined with a personal study of the works, which was meant to produce a well-founded judgement. Through Osorgin’s book, Russian readers discovered many Italian authors. However, he often succumbed to subjectivity caused by his belief in the social responsibilities of literature. Following remarks on illiteracy and the subjugation of schools and libraries by the Catholic Church elsewhere in the book, Osorgin proceeds to chastise authors for failing to adequately address the plight of ordinary people. Consequently, he finds writings in a dialect, e. g., Belli’s and Pascarella’s works, to be truly national literature. The treatment of Italian literature in Essays owes its angle to Osorgin’s adherence to Herzen’s and Bakunin’s ideals.

1. Alyakrinskaya, N. (2003). Italian culture in Russian journalism in the first quarter of the 20th century. Thesis. Candidate of Philology. Moscow, Lomonosov Moscow State University. (In Russ.)

2. Andreev, M. (2016). Benedetto Croce. In: E. Saprykina, ed., History of Italian literature. Vol. 4 (1). Moscow: IMLI RAN, pp. 640-657. (In Russ.)

3. Croce, B. (1908). Letteratura e critica della letteratura contemporanea. Bari: Laterza. (In Italian).

4. Komolova, N. (2005). ‘A place where I was happy:’ Mikhail Osorgin in Italy. In: N. Komolova, Italy in Russian Silver Age culture: Times and destinies. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 289-298. (In Russ.)

5. Lasorsa, C. (2011). Romani e Russi in ‘Li Romani in Russia’ di Elia Marcelli. Rivista del Centro Studi Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, IX(2), pp. 13-51. (In Italian).

6. Lazareva, E. (2020). Italian Futurism. Manifestos and projects. 1909-1941 (2 vols). Moscow: Gileya. (In Russ.)

7. Leontiev, Y. (2000). They had a common love, Italy. In: L. Bragina, V. Gayduk, Y. Glushakova et al., eds., Russia and Italy. Issue 4: The encounter of cultures. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 215-226. (In Russ.)

8. Lunacharsky, А. (1910). Sem Benelli’s theatre. Kievskaya Mysl, 6 June, p. 3. (In Russ.)

9. Osorgin, M. (2022). Essays on modern Italy. Foreword and comments by А. Yampolskaya. Moscow: Izdatelskaya gruppa 1900. (In Russ.)

10. Pasquinelli, A. (1986). La vita e le opinioni di M. A. Osorgin (1878-1942). Firenze: La Nuova Italia. (In Italian).

11. Pasquinelli, A. (1990). M. Osorgin, giornalista russo in Italia tra socialismo e anarchia (1908-1916). Europa Orientalis, 9, pp. 367-389. (In Italian).

12. Pasquinelli, A. (1997). Un russo in Italia. Torino: Tirrenia Stampatori. (In Italian).

13. Polikovskaya, L. (2014). The life of Mikhail Osorgin, or the construction of his own temple. St. Petersburg: Kriga; Pobeda. (In Russ.)

14. Shvarts, E. (2010). Gabriele D’Annunzio: Winged Cyclops. St. Petersburg: Vita Nova. (In Russ.)

15. Sokolov, A. (2018). Russia and the USSR at the World Exhibitions of the 20th–21st centuries. Novaya i Noveyshaya Istoriya, 2, pp. 125-143. (In Russ.)

16. Svarovskaya, A. (2014). M. Osorgin’s activities in Italy and essays by Russian teachers. In: М. Khatyamova, ed., Genre and narrative strategies in the literature of Russian emigration. Tomsk: TGPU, pp. 107-126. (In Russ.)

17. Trofimov, I. (2003). Italian motifs in Mikhail Osorgin’s works. In: N. Komolova, ed., Russia and Italy. Issue 5: Russian emigration in 20thcentury Italy. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 165-178. (In Russ.)

18. Yampolskaya, А. (2004). Gian Pietro Lucini and Italian free verse. In: G. Kedrova and V. Potapov, eds., Language and speech: problems and solutions: A collection of papers in honour of L. V. Zlatoustova. Moscow: Maks Press, pp. 417-426. (In Russ.).