Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture

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and questioned the link between feminism and principles that seemed incompatible with

the feminist theory of difference. After a long period of discussion, the UDI finally acted

to put an end to what had become an increasing subordination to the parties of the Left.

Moving ideologically away from politics toward cultural concerns of neofeminists, it

declared itself an autonomous organized movement in May 1982, its new aims being to

expand the feminist move-ment so as to embrace women who were concerned with

feminist issues but who were not necessarily ideologically aligned with the PCI. In fact,

central to the new UDI was the acknowledgement of multiple feminist perspectives

which made it possible for women to differ ideologically while working together on a

variety of women’s issues such as lesbianism, female sexuality, a union for prostitutes

and so on. Thus, evolving from fairly traditional and male-centred forms of political

militancy, the UDI became instrumental in developing what has become a widely

diffused women’s consciousness in Italy today.

Further reading

Birnbaum, L.C. (1986) Liberazione delta donna: Feminism in Italy, Middle town: Wesleyan

University Press (the UDI within the larger context of Italian feminism).

Slaughter, J. (1997) Women and the Italian Resistance, Denver: Arden Press (for the roots of the

movement).

BERNADETTE LUCIANO

UDR

The UDR (Unione Democratica per la Repubblica, or Democratic Union for the

Republic) was founded in the summer of 1998 by the volatile former DC prime minister

and President of the Republic, Francesco Cossiga, in an attempt to re-create the old

Christian Democratic centre grouping. It failed to win over the PPI but effectively

absorbed the CDU of Rocco Buttiglione, split the CCD, with one of the latter’s leading

lights, Clemente Mastella, joining it, and also attracted several disgruntled personalities

from Forza Italia, including Carlo Scognamiglio, ex-president of the Senate, and Tiziana

Parenti, magistrate and exmember of the Mani pulite team. Thus, in spite of holding only

5 per cent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, it occupied a strong strategic position

and so was able to play a crucial role in the formation of the new centre-left government

of Massimo D’Alema in October 1998. In consequence, the UDR obtained three cabinet

posts.

JOHN POLLARD

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Ulivo

The change to a mainly single-member constituency electoral system in 1993 obliged

parties and groupings to form electoral alliances in order to contest elections with any

hope of success. Thus, later that year the Left came together as the Progressisti

(Progressives), led by Achille Occhetto, who seemed confident of victory. The

Progressive alliance, however, was countered by Berlusconi’s Polo della Libertà which

actually did win, and it thus became clear that a broader left-wing alliance was necessary

to match the Polo. By August 1994, Romano Prodi began to be identified as a possible

counter-leader to Berlusconi, and in March 1995, Prodi launched the Ulivo (Olive Tree)

as a centre—left coalition of Catholics and ex-communists.

The deputy leader of the PDS and editor of L’Unità, Walter Veltroni, became deputy

leader of the Ulivo, and Prodi and Veltroni toured the country launching the new political

movement. The core of the Ulivo was obviously the PDS, but there were hopes that the

PPI, essentially the centre-left of the old DC, might also become part of the alliance.

Opinion in the PPI differed and in fact, soon after Prodi announced the formation of the

Olive Tree, the PPI split over whether it should support the Polo or become part of the

new centre—left grouping. The Left of the PPI, led by Gerardo Bianco, kept the name

and supported the Olive Tree, but the Right, under former secretary Rocco Buttiglione,

formed the CDU which confederated with Casini’s CCD and joined the Polo. In the lead-

up to the 1996 elections the then prime minister, Lamberto Dini, declared his intention of

founding a new movement in the centre. After some hesitation, especially with regard to

who might be the future prime minister should the alliance win, Dini accepted Prodi’s

leadership and his Rinnovamento italiano (Italian Renewal) became part of the Ulivo. For

the first time, there was a single programme (published in December 1995) underwritten

by all the components of the alliance. An agreement was also reached with Rifondazione

Comunista (Communist Refoundation) by which Ulivo and RC candidates would not

contest the same seats. RC did not subscribe to the manifesto, but said that it would

support a possible Ulivo government on an issue-by-issue basis.

The results of the 1996 national elections gave the Olive Tree alliance (together with

RC) a majority in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies (see Parliament). Its

policies came to be summed up in the title of a collection of Prodi’s essays Il capitalismo

ben temperato (Well-Tempered Capitalism). Specifically, in 1995, and when in

government the following year, substantive constitutional reform, a massive reduction of

the public deficit to reach the Maastricht criteria for European monetary union, pension

reform, continuation of the privatization process initiated by the Ciampi government (see

privatization and nationalization), introduction of fiscal federalism and a reduction of

the number of laws and of bureaucracy.

The Olive Tree government pursued these aims, though not without some tension both

between Prodi and D’Alema, leader of the biggest party in the coalition, and also

between those who supported the Olive Tree as a broad confederation of centre-left

groupings including Catholics and centrists (Prodi and Veltroni) and those who wanted a

single left-wing party for ex-communists, socialists, Christian socialists and Greens. The

future of the Olive Tree Alliance was put under severe strain when D’Alema succeeded

Prodi as Prime Minister in October 1998.

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Further reading

Bull, M. and Newell, J.L. (1996) ‘Party Organisations and Alliances in Italy in the 1990s: A

Revolution of Sorts’, West European Politics 20 (1): 81–109 (the Ulivo alliance in the wider

context of party change in Italy in the 1990s).

JAMES WALSTON

unemployment

Although Italy came out of the Second World War with unemployment rates above 30

per cent (in line with other European countries directly affected by the war), after a fitful

start it experienced two decades of high growth, and consequently Italians did not

perceive the existence of a problem of unemployment of the labour force until the end of

the 1970s.

During the 1950s and 1960s, internal migrations from the southern regions ensured an

almost unlimited supply of labour to the factories in the North. As a result, the

unemployment rates in the two regions began to converge, leading politicians and

economists to hastily predict the disappearance of the North—South divide. However, at

the beginning of the 1980s Italy experienced a process of industrial reorganization and

restructuring, which mainly affected the North of the country where the industries were

concentrated. The extent of this change was enormous: the industrial sector lost almost

one million jobs in four years (1981–4), which represented one-fifth of dependent

employment in the sector. As in other OECD countries, the Italian economy did not

return to the growth rates experienced during the golden age of capitalism, and this was

reflected in a slower growth of employment. At the same time, the cultural change

induced by rising enrolment in school produced an increase in participation rates of

women, and women began entering the labour market in force. The combination of low

growth in employment and rising participation rates, only partially counterbalanced by

longer stay at school, almost doubled unemployment levels. In addition, the employment

growth was concentrated in the Northern regions, thus exacerbating the unemployment in

the South. Furthermore, a crucial feature of the unemployment problem has remained its

concentration in specific segments of the labour force. So, for example, while the average

unemployment rate in 1996 was calculated as 12.1 per cent, this becomes 33.8 per cent

for young people aged 15–24 and reaches a maximum of 64.9 per cent for young women

in the South. Undoubtedly some of the regional differences are still related to cultural

roles: thus one can compare women’s participation in employment in the North (35 per

cent) with the corresponding figure for the South (19 per cent), but if one takes into

consideration that the average number of children per woman are respectively 1 and 1.5,

it becomes clear that the northern labour market corresponds to an indus-

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Growth and Unemployment Rates: Italy 1951–96

(percentages)

Italy:

growth

rate

Italy:

unemployment

North and centre:

unemployment

South:

unemployment

South/North:

unemployment

1951–

6.3 9.7 7.6 14.5 1.8

1961–

6.3 5.1 4.7 6.0 1.3

1971–

3.8 7.2 5.5 11.1 2.0

1981–

2.4 12.0 8.1 21.0 2.6

1991–

0.1 14.2 8.4 26.4 3.2

1951–

4.3 9.3 6.7 14.6 2.1

Figures from statistical appendix of Bank of Italy report

trial (or post-industrial) society, while in the South there remain wide areas of agricultural

society

Another peculiarity of the Italian labour market is that pressure from trade unions,

made possible by the tight labour market conditions during the 1970s, provided the

already employed workers (the so-called ‘insiders’) with legal protection against unfair

dismissal their employers. This contributed to the creation of a dual labour market: in the

primary labour market, a job might last for almost the worker’s entire life, with wages

regulated by national contracts; in the secondary market, jobs would be temporary, fiscal

evasion widespread and wages often below minimum levels.

Significantly, most of the Italian unemployed work in the secondary market. In 1996,

irregular work positions were estimated to exceed 10 per cent of regular positions.

Labour legislation was also under revision, in an attempt to increase temporary jobs so as

to facilitate entry into the labour market for young people. Great hopes were also raised

by the prospect of a legislated reduction of working hours. However, many economists

doubted the wisdom of such a move, based on fear that firms would be unable to hold

their own against foreign competition due to increased costs, and thus the eventual

outcome might very well be a reduction rather than an increase in total employment.

The Italian welfare system supports unemployed people in differentiated terms,

according to their previous employment status: for workers previously employed in firms

with more than 50 employees, there exists a temporary lay-off (named CIG, or Cassa

Integrazione Guadagni, corresponding to 80 per cent of previous pay), for a maximum of

two years, at the end of which the worker may either be fired (and in this case the subsidy

is extended for a period varying from 2–4 years) or goes back to work. Temporary lay-off

subsidies do not exist for people working in small business: if fired (but not in cases of

Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 854

voluntary dismissal), such workers obtain only a six-month subsidy (equal to 30 per cent

of previous pay). By contrast, first-job seekers are not entitled to any kind of social

support. Since the vast majority of young people fall within this group, their only option

is living with their family of origin, which explains why the family leaving rates are

lower than in other European countries, and the marriage age is higher and rising.

The social perception of the unemployment experience is therefore rather different

according to the age of the people involved. For young people, especially those living in

the South, there is little or no social stigma attached to the condition of being unemployed

and economically supported by someone else, usually the family. The condition of older

workers fired after a working life of 20–25 years is rather different. In most cases these

are blue-collar workers, with a low level of education and even lower probability of re-

employment. In this case, the unemployment experience may be dramatic, both in terms

of self-perception and with respect to economic resources, since in the older generation

the household head would most likely have been the only person earning an income for

the family The practical impossibility of finding a regular job often leads to a loss of self-

esteem, a lack of contact with friends and relatives which thus closes down all

information channels about potential vacancies, and sometimes also exacerbates poor

health conditions. It is not surprising, then, that suicide rates have been highest among

unemployed.

See also: agriculture; economic miracle; peasants; social welfare

Further reading

CEPR (1995) European Unemployment: Is there a Solution?, Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press (an analysis of the effect of labour market rigidity on unemployment in an European

perspective).

ISTAT (1997) Rapporto Annuale—La situazione del Paese nel 1996, Istituto Poligrafico di Stato

(especially ch. 3 which presents a detailed analysis of Italian unemployment).

DANIELE CHECCHI

Ungaretti, Giuseppe

b. 10 Bebruary 1888, Alexandria, Egypt; d. 1 June 1970, Milan

Poet

After childhood and adolescence in Egypt, Ungaretti went to Paris in 1912, where he

stayed for two years, before entering to the Italian army to fight in the First World War.

In the French capital, Ungaretti met the most important members of the avantgardes of

the period: the futurists (F.T. Marinetti, Boccioni, Severini, but above all Giovanni

Papini, Ardengo Soffici and Carlo Carrà), the cubists (especially Picasso) and

Apollinaire. After several poems had appeared in Lacerba and La Diana, Ungaretti was

able to enlist the help of Ettore Serra to publish his first collection of poems, Il Porto

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Sepolto (The Buried Harbour) (1916) in a small edition. In 1919 he added some new

poems and variations on some of the old poems and published it again under the new title

of Allegria di naufragi (Joy of Shipwrecks). This would become Ungaretti’s

characteristic way of working, and all his collections would be marked by a constant

return to earlier verse in order to file and perfect it to the point of silence. Such a poetics

of the word redeploys some of the stylistic tenets proposed by the avantgarde movements

and pushes to the limit some of the experimentation that had already fascinated the poets

of French symbolism (Baudelaire and Mallarmé especially, but also Rimbaud). At the

same time Ungaretti, in reaction to the eloquent lyric of D’Annunzio, embraced the

Italian romantic tradition of Giacomo Leopardi and experimented with the metre by

dismantling the compact unity of the hendecasyllable. The result was a poetry that

emphasized the value of the sounds, especially the smallest elements of the word itself.

The very short poems which Ungaretti included in his first collection are phonic particles

embedded in the white of the page, the blank space being homologous to the silence in

which the word resonates and to which it returns. This gesture, a manifest expression of

the poetics of the fragment, left a distinctive mark on hermeticist poetry. The collection,

moreover, presents itself as a sort of war diary, with the exact specification of dates and

places and with an internal chronological organization to the sections.

Working as a correspondent for Mussolini’s newspaper, Il popolo d’Italia—a

collaboration that, magnified by the innocuous preface written by Mussolini for the 1923

edition of Il Porto Sepolto, would create problems for the poet after the war—Ungaretti

moved to Italy in 1921 and lived first in Rome, then at Marino. After working for some

years for the Foreign Ministry, in 1931 he became as correspondent for the Turin

newspaper La Gazzetta del Popolo. While publishing new editions of his first collection

(Il Porto Sepolto in 1923, and L’Allegria in 1931), he worked on a new book of poetry

(Sentimento del Tempo) (Feeling of Time) (1933, 1936) which marked a return to more

traditional poetic forms, the most striking one being the reconstruction of the

hendecasyllable. The new collection also bore witness to a spiritual crisis which afflicted

the poet until 1928, when it was partially resolved by his return to Catholicism.

Furthermore, in Sentimento Ungaretti attempts to reconsider the epistemological tenets

that lay at the basis of his early poetry (foremost the philosophy of Henri Bergson, whose

lectures he attended at the Sorbonne during his Paris years). Poetry must be both new and

classic at the same time. Ungaretti’s second collection is thus a continuous meditation

articulated as a number of illuminations, organized in a series of small strophes which

themselves evoke and recall the fragments of the first collection. But this time it is

memory that, more efficaciously and pervasively than before, leads the poetic expression.

By crossing Leopardi’s poetics with Bergson’s philosophy, Memory has become a

psychological rendition of lost innocence and the Christian myth of Eden and the Fall can

be resurrected through its power. A concern with time remained a constant motif of

Ungaretti’s poetry, so much so that in 1942, when the publisher Mondadori began

publication of his collected work, the poet insisted on having them appear under the

general and comprehensive title of Vita d’un uomo (Life of a Man).

In the meantime, during a congress organized by the Pen Club in South America,

Ungaretti had been offered the chair in Italian Language and Literature at the University

of Sâo Paulo in Brazil and had accepted. After six years in Brazil, he returned to Italy in

1942 and, on the basis of his great renown, was given a professorship in contemporary

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Italian Literature, a position he temporarily lost at the end of the Second World War due

to his collaboration with the Fascist regime.

The period in Brazil had been a time of personal suffering. Far from the war itself

(which, however, had found its place in the poet’s echo of collective lamentations and

invocations of peace), Ungaretti had lost his brother and his son Antonietto. This time of

sorrow interrupted the project of the third book of poems, overwhelmed by the outburst

of Il Dolore (The Sorrow) (1947). Only in 1950 was La Terra Promessa (The Promised

Land) published, a collection whose title is purposefully deceptive, since it explicitly

recalls the Jews’ Exodus from Egypt, but it actually celebrates Aeneas’s voyage to Italy.

At this point, the reflection on poetry and memory had been completed not only in light

of his own personal experiences of loss, but also in the study of Plato and Neoplatonic

philosophy. Aeneas, the hero of the quest who conquers the promised land, is never

named and left out of the collection as the absence par excellence, in line with the

symbolist tradition from Mallarmé to D’Annunzio, from Valéry to hermeticist criticism.

With a poetic life already fulfilled, there followed the publication of other small

collections of poetry, such as Un Grido e Paesaggi (A Cry and Landscapes) (1952) and Il

Taccuino del Vecchio (The Notebook of the Old Man) (1960), some critical writings,

such as the travel notes Il Deserto e dopo (The Desert and Afterwords) (1961) and his

important translations from Gongora, Shakespeare, Mallarmé and St John Perse.

Further reading

Brose, M. (1977) ‘Ungaretti’s Promised Land: The Mythification of L’Allegria’, Italica 54 (3):

341–66.

Cambon, G. (1967) Giuseppe Ungaretti, New York: Columbia University Press.

Cary, J. (1969) Three Modern Italian Poets: Saba, Ungaretti, Montale, New York: New York

University Press.

Jones, F.J. (1977) Giuseppe Ungaretti: Poet and Critic, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Perella, N.J. (1979) Midday in Italian Literature: Variations on an Archetypal Theme, Princeton,

NJ: Princeton University Press.

Ungaretti, G. (1969) Vita d’un uomo. Tutte le poesie, ed. L.Piccioni, Milan: Mondadori (a complete

collection of all the poems).

— (1971) Selected Poems, introduction and notes by P.Creagh, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

ERNESTO LIVORNI

L’Unità

Official daily of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and subsequently of the PDS,

L’Unità (Unity) has reflected the changing nature and fortunes of the party. It was

founded by Gramsci in 1924 as a tool for fostering unity between workers and peasants

and North and South. Suppressed under Fascism and refounded by Togliatti in 1942, it

thrived as the organ of the postwar mass party, thanks largely to militants’ door-to-door

distribution and Festa dell’Unità (Festival of Unity) fundraising. While the decline in

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militancy in the 1980s brought a reduction of sales, L’Unità remained one of Italy’s most

significant dailies. During the same period, greater freedom of debate within the party

was reflected in the spawning of satirical magazines Tango and Cuore. Under Veltroni’s

editorship from 1992 to 1996, the paper broadened its appeal by dedicating a complete

section, ‘L’Unità due’, to culture and sport, inviting greater contributions from

intellectuals outside the party and regularly including free books, video and music

cassettes. Although sales improved somewhat and the paper became much less

identifiable with the party, these changes were not sufficient to overcome its severe

financial difficulties, making its sale to private interests increasingly probable.