Italian-language Literature in Switzerland

The largest part of Italian-speaking Switzerland, according to ezinereligion, the area of ​​today’s Ticino, gradually came under the rule of the Confederates in the 15th and 16th centuries; However, the Swiss conquest did not change the cultural orientation of the writers in the few small town centers. In the 16th and 17th centuries, some humanists lived in Lugano, such as Francesco Cicereio (* 1521/27, † 1596) and Cardinal Federico Borromeo (* 1564, † 1631), founder of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. It was not until the 18th century that a literary tradition began; the writers were associated with the various provinces of Italy and were almost exclusively members of the Church. Next to the poet Diego Girolamo Maderni († 1761), Author of sonnets, the work of some translators is also significant, such as by Giuseppe Fossati (* 1759, † 1811), translator A. von Hallers, by Gian Menico Cetti (* 1780, † 1817), first Italian translator from Russian, Giampiero Riva (* 1696, † 1785) and by Francesco Soave (* 1743, † 1806), translator of S. Gessner’s idylls. In 1803 the region became through the intervention of Napoleon to an autonomous state within the confederation of states that is on an equal footing with the other Swiss cantons, later in the federal state. The new state, initially characterized by poverty and underdevelopment, could count on some important politicians and political writers who were shaped by the enlightening cosmopolitan Milan: Vincenzo D’Alberti (* 1763, † 1849), first president of the Ticino government, political writer and Author of sonnets, and in particular Stefano Franscini (* 1796, † 1857), first Ticino Federal Councilor, one of the most skilled historical-political writers of his time. The following stood out in various areas of philology: Johann Caspar Orelli (* 1787, † 1859), editor of Cicero, Tacitus and Horace, connoisseurs of Latin inscriptions, through whom Italian poets such as T. Campanella and U. Foscolo became known among German writers, as well as the Dante researcher GA Scartazzini from Bregaglia, who made an important contribution to the dissemination of Dante’s writings among the Germans Readers delivered. In linguistics, because of their geographical location has a long tradition in Italian Switzerland, worked Carlo Salvioni (* 1858, † 1920), founder of the “Vocabolario dei dialetti della Svizzera italiana” (1907) and Giovanni Luzzi (* 1856, † 1948) whose main work is an annotated edition of the Bible. The naturalists Luigi Lavizzari (* 1814, † 1875) and Silvio Calloni (* 1850, † 1931) were pioneers in the field of scientific prose. Italian émigrés made important contributions to fiction, such as Carlo Cattaneo (* 1801, † 1869) or the Mazzini follower Francesco Scalini (* 1792). Also significant from a literary point of view are the classicist tragedies in the style of A. Manzoni and G. Byron by Antonio Caccia the Younger from Ticino, who emigrated to Trieste (* 1829, † 1893). Also in the 20th century many writers from Italian-speaking Switzerland worked abroad, Enrico Filippini (* 1932, † 1988) between Milan and Rome, Alice Ceresa (* 1923, † 2001) in Rome; The work of A. Storni belongs to Argentine literature. A narrator of his own was Angelo Nessi (* 1873, † 1932), a later representative of the Milanese Scapigliatura. Ticino literature in the real sense begins with F. Chiesa. After a stormy start, criticizing the Ticino self-sufficiency and defending “Italianità”, he developed into the head of a Ticino literature that was linguistically and culturally oriented towards Italy and politically and culturally towards Switzerland. Were under his influence Piero Bianconi (* 1899, † 1984), who wrote probably the best book in the region on the subject of emigration with his »Albero genealogico« (1969; German »The family tree: Chronicle of a Ticino family«), G. Zoppi, Valerio Abbondio (* 1891, † 1958) and Guido Calgari (* 1905, † 1969), who founded the cultural magazine »Svizzera italiana« (1941–62) and expressed a Swiss-influenced Ticino patriotism in his festival »Sacra terra ticinese« (1939). The works of the philosopher and philologist Romano Amerio (* 1905, † 1997) are also significant. In the 1940s there were in fiction a departure from Chiesa by Felice Filippini (* 1917, † 1988), who was under the influence of neorealists such as E. Vittorini , and in poetry by Giorgio Orelli (* 1921, † 2013). Important storytellers of this time are Giovanni Bonalumi (* 1920, † 2002), the brothersRemo (* 1922, † 2009) and Sandro Beretta (* 1926, † 1960), Plinio Martini (* 1923, † 1979), G. Orelli , Giuseppe Curonici (* 1934), Claudio Nembrini (* 1941). In terms of poetry, we should highlight Adolfo Jenni (* 1911, † 1997), Federico Hindermann (* 1921, † 2012), Ugo Canonica (* 1918, † 2003), Remo Fasani (* 1922, † 2011), Sergio Maspoli (* 1920, † 1987) and the outstanding dialect poet Alina Borioli (* 1887, † 1965). Significant contemporary authors include: Alice Ceresa (* 1923, † 2001),Ketty Fusco (* 1926), Grytzko Mascioni (* 1936, † 2003), Angelo Casè (* 1936, † 2005), Anna Felder (* 1937), Gilberto Isella (* 1943), Fleur Jaeggy (* 1940), Aurelio Buletti (* 1946), Antonio Rossi (* 1952), Donata Berra (* 1947) and Fabio Pusterla (* 1957). In literary criticism, inter alia. G. Orelli and Giovanni Pozzi (* 1922, † 2002) a name.

Italian-language Literature in Switzerland