Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture

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Malipiero’s later work. The recent operatic work of Salvatore Sciarrino develops the

tendencies towards the European avantgarde found in Nono and Maderna, with Vanitas

(1981) and Lohengrin (1982–4) suggesting a strong link with past models while at the

same time maintaining a determinedly progressive outlook.

Further reading

Bianconi, L. and Pestelli, G. (eds) (1987) Storia dell’opera italiana (The History of Italian Opera),

Turin: EDT/Musica.

Kimbell, D. (1991) Italian Opera, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

JOHN KERSEY

Orelli, Giorgio

b. 1921, Airolo, Canton Ticino, Switzerland

Poet, novelist and essayist

The most important Swiss poet writing in Italian, Orelli writes with formal precision and

great erudition, focusing thematically on the landscape and life of Lombardy and the

Canton Ticino. With time, however, Orelli has displayed the ability to move from the

epigrammatic and gnomic quality of his 1944 collection Né bianco né viola (Neither

White Nor Purple) to the narrative and dialogic airiness on display in L’ora del tempo

(Time’s Hour) (1961) and Sinopie (Outlines) (1977). His later work, such as Spiracoli

(Spiracles), published in 1989, continues the poet’s evolution by linguistically resorting

to instances of local dialect and German and by thematically reaffirming the poet’s

puritan and methodical Swiss background. Orelli’s collection of short stories, Un giorno

della vita (A Day of Life) (1960) and his critical essays also display the writer’s great

linguistic control and attention to style.

VALERIO FERME

Orengo, Nico

b. 1944, Turin

Novelist and poet

Although residing in Turin, where he was born, Orengo has elected the Liguria region as

his artistic home and this emotional and cultural attachment is evident in most of his

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writings. In the novel Ribes (1988), for instance, Orengo narrates the transformation of a

rural community—based on the Ligurian town of Dolceacqua (in the novel,

‘Acquadolce’)—as a result of the introduction of television. Similar geographical settings

characterize the novels Miramare (1976) and Dogana d’amore (The Customs House of

Love) (1986). His tribute to Liguria takes a different form in the collection of poems

Cartoline di mare (Postcards of the Sea) (1986) where the protagonists are the animals

and the plants inhabiting the region. This poetry celebrates the liminal zone between the

sea and the earth by exploring its ecological habitat through a language which is an

interesting combination of scientific knowledge and humble reverence. Orengo is also

known for his colourful and captivating children’s literature: A-ulíulé. Filastrocche,

conti, ninnenanne (A-ulí-ulé: Nursery-Rhymes, Limericks and Lullabies) (1972) and

Andare per mare. Storia del Capitan Rebissu e della sua barca Gianchettu (1975),

translated as The Sea Voyage.

PAOLO BARTOLONI

Ortese, Anna Maria

b. 13 June 1914, Rome; d. 11 March 1998, Rapallo

Novelist

Ortese began her writing career by contributing to such publications as Oggi, L’Europeo,

and Il Corriere della sera. She has lived in different cities, mostly in Southern Italy, the

setting of several of her works. In 1937 she published her first collection of short stories,

influenced by magic realism. Later narratives, however, are distinguished by neorealist

themes, and reflect her journalistic writing as well as her interest in the fantastic. The

collection of short stories Il mare non bagna Napoli (The Sea Does Not Touch Naples)

(1953), winner of the Viareggio Prize, and Silenzio a Milano (Silence in Milan) (1958)

portray the economic problems of the South and the alienating existence of the developed

North. At the same time, novels such as L’iguana (The Iguana) (1965), Poveri e semplici

(Poor and Simple) (1967), which won the Strega Prize, and Il porto di Toledo (Port of

Toledo) (1975), and the short story collection La luna sul muro (The Moon on the Wall)

(1968) recount her life experiences. Later works include In sonno e in veglia (In Sleep

and In Wake) (1987), winner of the Elsa Morante Prize. She was honoured by the Italian

Republic with the equivalent of a knighthood (commendatore).

Further reading

Wood, S. (1995) ‘“Such stuff as dreams are made on”: Anna Maria Ortese and the Art of the Real’,

in S. Wood (ed.), Italian Women’s Writing 1860–1994, London: Athlone Press.

VIRGINIA PICCHIETTI

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L’Osservatore Romano

Originally founded in July 1861 with the blessing of Pope Pius IX, L’Osservatore

Romano (The Roman Observer) is now the recognized organ of the Vatican and, as such,

conveys its official comment on national and international current affairs. It publishes a

weekly supplement on Sundays, L’Osservatore delta domenica (The Sunday Observer)

as well as also appearing in a weekly edition in French, English, Spanish, German and

Portuguese and as a monthly in Polish. By the late 1990s it had put several of its foreign

language editions online and made them available on the Internet.

See also: Catholic press and publishing; newspapers

GINO MOLITERNO

Ossola, Carlo

b. 1945, Turin

Literary critic and essayist

Previously Professor at the University of Geneva and now Professor of Italian at the

College de France, Ossola is one of the most active and respected scholars in Italian

Studies today. His works on the Renaissance, L’autunno del Rinascimento (Autumn of

the Renaissance) and Dal ‘Cortegiano’ all’ ‘Uomo di mondo

’

. Storia di un libro e di un

modello sociale (From the ‘Courtier’ to the ‘Man of the World’: History of a Book and of

a Social Model), are considered critical cornerstones in the field. Ossola has also worked

extensively on twentieth-century Italian poetry, in particular on the work of Giuseppe

Ungaretti, on which he has written what is generally regarded as the most important

monographic work to date. Together with Vittore Branca, Ossola edits the prestigious

journal Lettere Italiane (Italian Letters), and he is also the director of the renowned

Summer Seminars on High Culture sponsored by the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice.

ANDREA CICCARELLI

Ottieri, Ottiero

b. 29 March 1924, Rome

Novelist, poet and playwright

In his first book of fiction, Memorie dell’incoscienza (Memories of Unconsciousness)

(1954), Ottieri dealt with the traumatic experiences of war, but his subsequent works up

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to Donnaruma all’assalto (Donnaruma on the Assault) (1959) analyse the alienation and

disenfranchisement of a whole generation of southern peasants forced to migrate north

where they are required to learn different social rules and professional conventions.

Ottieri’s later fiction is characterized by a stylistic concern whose main feature is dialogic

experimentation. In I due amori (The Two Loves) (1983), for instance, the continuous,

heterogeneous and disorderly accumulation of sounds and voices results in a polysemous,

clownish and hyperrealistic effect reminiscent of some of Fellini’s movies. This

experimental trait is explored even further in the collections of poems in prose, Il palazzo

e il pazzo (The Palace and the Lunatic) (1993), Il poema osceno (The Obscene Poem)

(1996) and Diario del seduttore passivo (Diary of the Passive Seducer) (1995), in which

Ottieri’s writing, using a mixture of archaic, literary and graphic language, investigates

the themes of love and madness.

PAOLO BARTOLONI

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P2 (Propaganda 2) was a secret Masonic lodge, established under the aegis of the larger

of Italy’s two Masonic families, the Grand Orient of Palazzo Giustiniani. It was dissolved

by Parliament as a criminal association in 1981.

P2’s real history begins in 1970 when a Tuscan businessman, Licio Gelli, was granted

responsibility for the lodge and power to initiate new members privately. Gelli’s

suspiciously recent conversion to Freemasonry (he was initiated in 1965) and his political

obscurity suggest that his role, designed by others, was to infiltrate the organization and

convert an influential segment of the P2 into a clandestine centre of anticommunist

influence. His wartime experiences, which included service to Fascists, Germans and

Americans, had given him entry into both moderate and extreme conservative circles in

Italy and abroad, and his links with leading members of the Italian secret services enabled

him to obtain the dossiers they had compiled on 300,000 Italians in the 1960s. Gelli was

able to turn such resources to good effect in recruiting for the P2. The list of 511

members which was made public in 1981 included ministers and MPs, magistrates and

judges, senior officers in the armed forces and security services, and high-ranking state

officials. Other powerful affiliates included Angelo Rizzoli, then owner of the Corriere

delta sera, and two bankers who were to meet violent deaths, Michele Sindona and

Roberto Calvi. The revelation that even leading politicians were ready to join a secret

association suspected of plotting against the state forced the resignation of the Christian

Democrat government in 1981 and its replacement by the first postwar government to be

led by a member of another party (Giovanni Spadolini from the PRI).

What purpose did the P2 serve? Its structure, based exclusively on direct links

between Gelli and affiliates whose involvement was not widely known to other members

and who met only in small groups, certainly militated against any clear collective goal.

Some accounts portray it as little more than an underground salotto, organized by Gelli to

make participants aware that their fear of the advance of communism, and sympathy for

some kind of authoritarian response, was shared by people in other influential positions.

Others, including several Italian courts, have identified it as an active agent in the right-

wing conspiracies of the 1970s, detecting its hand in the neo-fascist strategy of tension

(see strategia deHa tensione) and in a deliberate decision to allow Moro, supposedly

soft on communism, to be murdered by the Red Brigades. Senior P2 members, notably

from the armed forces, were fond of illegality, but it remains unclear whether their

actions had a common origin in P2 strategy.

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Further reading

Cecchi, A. (1985) Storia della P2 (History of the P2), Rome: Editori Riuniti.

Cornwell, R. (1983) God’s Banker, London: Victor Gollancz (the career of Robert Calvi and his

links with the P2).

Ferraresi, F. (1996) Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy After the War, Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press (the political environment of the P2).

DAVID MOSS

Paci, Enzo

b. 19 December 1911, Ancona; d. 21 July 1976, Milan

Philosopher

Paci studied with Antonio Banfi at Milan and was heavily influenced by the

phenomenology of Husserl and by historical materialism. His synthesis of the unlikely

pair, phenomenology and Marxism, led him to formulate a philosophy of history which

privileged events over entities and made the processes inherent in relatedness more

important than substance itself. With a rapid succession of works and through the

phenomenological orientation of the journal Aut aut, which he founded in 1951, Paci

inspired the return to Husserl that animated Italian philosophy of the 1960s. His influence

is due, at least in part, to his wide range of interests which included poetry, music,

science and architecture.

Further reading

Dallmayr, F. (1973) ‘Phenomenology and Marxism: A Salute to Enzo Paci’, in G.Psathas (ed.),

Phenomenological Sociology, New York and London: John Wiley and Sons, 305–56.

THOMAS KELSO

Padre Pio

b. 25 May 1887, Pietrelcina, Benevento; d. 23 September 1968, San Giovanni Rotondo,

Foggia

Franciscan friar

One of the greatest foci of modern Italian popular piety and the principal cause of a

religious revival in southern Italy in the postwar period, Pio entered the Franciscan order

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in 1905 and was ordained in 1910. In 1918 he first manifested signs of the stigmata (the

wounds which Christ suffered on the Cross) and as a result his monastery at San

Giovanni Rotondo, Puglia, became a centre of pilgrimage for the next sixty years. In spite

of mystical leanings, Padre Pio showed great concern for the living and for working

conditions of the local people, and in 1956 he opened a major hospital. For a long time

the Church’s general attitude towards the Padre Pio phenomenon was one of scepticism

and distance, but in December 1998 his miraculous works were confirmed and in May

1999 he was officially beatified.

Further reading

McKevitt, C. (1991) ‘San Giovanni Rotondo and the Cult of Padre Pio’, in J.Eade and M.J.Sallnow

(eds), Contesting the Sacred, London: Routledge.

JOHN POLLARD

Pagliarani, Elio

b. 25 May 1927, Viserba, Forlí

Poet

After completing his degree in Political Science in 1951, Pagliarani taught in several high

schools in Milan and worked on the editorial staff of the socialist newspaper Avanti!

(Forward!). He also contributed to literary journals such as Nuovi argomenti, il verri,

Quindici and, finally, Periodo ipotetico which he also founded. His poems appear in the

neoavantgarde anthology I novissimi (1961), and he belonged to the Gruppo 63, a group

of poets and intellectuals who sketched the theoretical background for neoavantgarde

poetry itself. His poetry, prosaic and chronicle-like, is often filled with the imagery and

characters of an urban landscape. His verses, especially the later ones, are characterized

by a strong innovative and experimental tension which aims at undermining the structures

of language and discourse.

Further reading

Pagliarani, E. (1985) (La ragazza Carla—Lezione di fisica e Fecaloro—Dalla ballata di Rudi)

(Poems for Recitation: The Girl Carla—The Physics Lesson and Fecaloro—From Rudi’s

Ballad), ed. A. Briganti, Rome: Bulzoni (a representative collection of Pagliarani’s poetry).

ENRICO CESARETTI

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Pajetta, Giancarlo

b. 24 June 1911, Turin; d. 13 September 1990, Rome

Politician

One of the most popular and prestigious leaders of the PCI (Italian Communist Party),

Giancarlo Pajetta was first jailed for subversive activities at the age of sixteen. During the

Resistance, as a leader of the CLNAI (National Liberation Committee), he was

responsible for agreements in which the Allies and the caretaker Italian government

recognized the CLNAI as their representative in the North, in return for a guarantee to

relinquish authority after Liberation. While Pajetta claimed that it had been impossible to

achieve more, the socialists considered this price for support of the partisan struggle too

high. A member of parliament from 1945 onwards, as well as editor of L’Unità and

Rinascita for long periods, Pajetta was known for his corrosive wit and fiercely

combative spirit. Within the party, he played a key role in organizational affairs and

foreign policy development.

CLAIRE KENNEDY

Paladino, Mimmo (Domenico)

b. 18 December 1948, Paduli, Benevento

Artist

Paladino was part of the Italian transavantgarde and the return to the use of figurative

elements in painting in the 1970s and 1980s. His interest in drawing is shown by the

compositional nature of his works which, like those of other artists identified with the

transavantgarde, make use of a wide range of sources, including ancient art and

mythology. Paladino’s work is somewhat more mysterious, however; it alludes to the

past, to states of life and death and to the unknowable, without attempting to impose

fixed meanings. On the Edge of Evening (1983) is composed of human and animal shapes

built up to suggest a dreamlike state where matter is in flux. Paladino has held numerous

exhibitions since 1976, moving beyond painting to mixed media, print-making and

sculpture.

Further reading

Bonito Oliva, A. and Rosenthal, N. (1993) Mimmo Paladino, Milan, Fabbri Editori (exhibition

catalogue with some colour illustrations).

MAX STAPLES

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Palazzeschi, Aldo

b. 2 February 1885, Florence; d. 18 August 1974, Rome

Poet and novelist

As one of the founding members of the Italian avantgarde, Palazzeschi (the pseudonym

of Giurlani Aldo) not only revolutionized Italian literature earlier in the twentieth century

with his antiliterary work but, through his writing’s ironic and self-reflexive parody, also

offered an early example of postmodern sensitivity in Italian culture.

Having trained briefly as an actor before starting his career as a writer, Palazzeschi

published his first book of poetry, I cavalli bianchi (White Horses) in 1905. In this as

well as in other early books, Palazzeschi parodies and attacks the leading poetic schools

of the time by transforming D’Annunzio’s Nietzschean celebration of the poet’s

Dionysian powers and the ‘tubercular’ resignation of decadentismo (the decadent school)

into what one critic has called ‘l’occasione per l’irriverenza, la malizia, la metamorfosi in

manichini dei personaggi tipici di tali luoghi e spazi’ (the occasion for irreverence, for

malice and for the metamorphosis into puppets of the typical characters represented in

such works) (Barbèri Squarotti, 1994:704 (my translation)). Having joined the futurists’

revolt against the status quo, Palazzeschi continued to attack the literary establishment

with the narrative works Codice di Perelà (Perelà’s Codex) (1911) and La Piramide (The

Pyramid) (1926), whose fantastic and sarcastic humour signal a pessimistic abandonment

of the rhetorical and self-centred artistic representations of the previous Italian tradition.

Prior to the Second World War, Palazzeschi also published his most successful novel, Le

sorelle Materassi (The Materassi Sisters), which was made into film in 1943 and adapted

for Italian public television in the 1960s. On the surface level, the novel narrates the

emotional and financial swindling of two sisters by a nephew with whom they have fallen

in love. However, it is also meant as the occasion for a scathing indictment of the

Florentine bourgeoisie and its provincial morality.

Following a period of inactivity that coincided with the Second World War,

Palazzeschi returned to writing in the late 1940s and early 1950s with the novels I fratelli

Cuccoli (The Cuccoli Brothers) (1948) and Roma (1953), books that do not maintain the

biting originality and cohesive attacks on the system of his previous works. More

interesting are the short stories collected in Bestie del Novecento (TwentiethCentury

Beasts) (1951), where the elaboration of a modern bestiary provides the occasion for an

attack on the vices of his contemporaries. After another lengthy interruption, the 1960s

saw a renewed flurry of activity on Palazzeschi’s part. Of significance are the poems

collected in Cuor mio (My Heart) (1968), which display novel linguistic experimentation

side by side with the usual polemics against the intellectual establishment. Palazzeschi

was more-over the author of numerous autobiographical works, chief among them Tre

imperi…mancati (Three Empires…Lost), in which Fascism’s imperial policy is divested

of its false rhetoric of power and heroic virtue, and exposed as the source of all the

suffering and civic unhappiness that followed.

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Further reading

Barbèri Squarotti, G. (1994) ‘Palazzeschi’, in G. Barbèri Squarotti (ed.), Storia della civiltà

letteraria italiana (History of Italian Literary Culture) Turin: UTET.

Tamburri, A. (1990) Of Saltimbanchi and Incendiari: Aldo Palazzeschi and Avant-Gardism in

Italy, London: Associated University Press.

VALERIO FERME

Pannella, Marco (Giacinto)

b. 2 May 1930, Teramo

Politician and civil rights campaigner

For more than twenty years, Marco Pannella acted as conscience of the Italian Left, a

professional outsider who was in fact part of the establishment, the joker in the political

pack and in practice the leader of the anti-clerical non-Marxist liberal left. He was among

the founders of the Radical Party as a pressure group in 1955, and its de facto leader

when it became a parliamentary party in 1974. Pannella and the Radicals fought in favour

of divorce, legal abortion, conscientious objection to conscription and decriminalization

of illegal drugs. In the 1980s they fought for increased famine relief and aid to the

developing world. The main weapons used were civil disobedience, hunger strikes and

referenda. In 1994 he left the left-wing Progressive Alliance and gave ambiguous

support to Silvio Berlusconi (bearing out Teodori’s characterization of Pannella as

‘schizophrenic’). He was a deputy in the Italian Parliament from 1976–92 and the

European Parliament from 1979, either as a Radical or standing under the banner of the

‘Club Pannella’ or ‘Riformatori’.

Further reading

Tedori, M. (1996) Marco Pannella. Un eretico liberale nella crisi della Repubblica (Marco

Pannella: A Liberal Heretic in the Crisis of the Republic), Venice: Marsilio.

JAMES WALSTON

Panorama

Launched in October 1962 by publisher Arnoldo Mondadori in association with the

American Time—Life group, Panorama was originally a generic monthly presenting

cultural and entertainment features with little or no space dedicated to politics. Poor sales

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