Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture

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directed by their father. Among Carlo and Enrico’s films are many of the vacation sagas

like Sapore di mare (Seaside Holidays) (1983), Vacanze di Natale (Christmas Holidays)

(1983) and Vacanze americane (American Holidays) (1984).

Belonging to the previous generation, Steno Vanzina (1915–88) started as a writer in

the 1940s for the satirical review Marc’Aurelio but was soon working with Monicelli as

co-scriptwriter and codirector on several of the Totò films: Totò cerca casa (Totò Looks

for a House) (1949), Guardie e ladri (Guards and Thieves) (1952) and Totò e i re di

Roma (Totò and the Kings of Rome) (1951). He went on to make a number of popular

comedies which employed the proven talents of Alberto Sordi, Vittorio De Sica, Nino

Manfredi and Ugo Tognazzi, amongst which Un americano a Roma (An American in

Rome) (1954) and A noi piace freddo (Some Like it Cold) (1966). Unfortunately his later

films achieved little success.

CRISTINA DEGLI-ESPOSTI REINERT

varieties of Italian

The term ‘Italian’ is conveniently used to cover a great many language varieties, as is the

case with all major national languages. These varieties are geographic, social and

situational, as well as historical, but in the case of Italian, the chequered linguistic and

political history of the peninsula has determined more marked variation than in the other

Romance languages. This means that, beside the basic general features (sounds, words,

rules and so on) used by everybody in all circumstances, which constitute the common

core of Italian, there are other particular features which, when grouped together, form a

variety.

Standard Italian is the variety which comprises the basic common features. It in turn

exists in two varieties: a high standard, and a low standard. The former is the variety

traditionally described in grammar books, prescribed at school and taught to foreigners,

that which is most stable and functions as a reference model for all considerations of

correctness. This high standard has a rather literary character, is used by the upper, more

learned classes, in formal situations, and is realized more often in writing than in

speaking. By definition, it is neither geographically nor socially marked. It is widely used

by modern writers, especially those who choose to write most carefully and elegantly,

such as Italo Calvino. In its oral form, the high standard sounds artificial and bookish

and, although considered prestigious, it is not an ideal to which Italians strive to conform

(see also language attitudes).

The low standard is used most by the middle and upper classes, and is realized more in

speaking than in writing. It is called also the new standard because it is highly unstable,

as colloquial and informal features, still considered substandard in writing, are gradually

being accepted in speaking. In this variety the modernization of the old elitist literary

language is most evident. Unlike the high standard, where the norm is determined by

authoritative literary and school canons, with this low standard the norm is established by

usage. The most unstable level is grammar, especially that of pronouns and verbs. Some

common features are (1) the loss of the subject pronouns egli ‘he’ and ella ‘she’, essi

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‘they/masc.’ and esse ‘they/fem.’, replaced respectively by lui ‘he’, lei ‘she’ and loro

‘they’; (2) an extended use of che for example, il giorno che ci siamo conosciuti ‘the day

in which we met’, and vieni che ti faccio un regalo ‘come, I’ll give you a present’; (3) a

reduced use of the historic past, for example, l’anno scorso andai ‘last year I went’

replaced by the perfect sono andato; and (4) a greater use of the imperfect, for example,

se lo sapevo non ci venivo ‘if I had known I would not have come’) where the high

standard would have se lo avessi saputo non ci sarei venuto. At the lexical level, words

are accepted which only slightly previously were considered substandard: the high

standard adirarsi ‘to get angry’ becomes arrabbiarsi in the low standard, but even

incavolarsi is now common. At the phonological level, there is a general tendency

towards reproducing in speech the common nationwide features of the spelling: for

example, the original Tuscan seven-vowel system tends to be gradually replaced by a

five-vowel system, as spelling does not distinguish between open and closed vowels in

such words as venti ‘winds’ with an open e versus ‘twenty’ with a closed e, and botte

‘blows’ with an open o versus ‘barrel’ with a closed o. Like the high standard variety, this

low variety of Italian is also widely used by modern writers, especially those who wish to

imitate most closely the spoken language, such as Natalia Ginzburg

Regional Italians are the local varieties of Italian. These are not substandard forms

living in the shadow of the national standard, they are what constitutes Italian. The

borders between them coincide with those between the main dialect groupings. Thus

broadly speaking, there is a northern variety, which further includes Gallo-Italian

varieties in Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria and Emilia-Romagna, and northeastern

varieties in the Veneto; a central variety, including Tuscan Italian; a southern variety,

including the two important varieties of Campania and Puglia; an extreme southern

variety, with Sicilian Italian and Calabrese Italian; and a Sardinian variety. The

differences among these varieties are greatest in phonology, but are still noticeable in the

lexicon and in the syntax. At the level of pronunciation, each regional Italian has its own

rules for sounds, intonation and rhythm, so that when one hears Italian one can easily

recognize the speaker’s region of origin. Thus regarding consonants, for example,

northern Italian tends to reduce double ones and pronounce them as single: the standard è

tutto hello ‘it’s all beautiful’ becomes è tuto belo; in central Italian double consonants are

usually (for example, in Tuscany and Umbria) the same as in the standard; while in

southern Italian some single consonants are doubled between vowels: la bella gente ‘the

fine people’ becomes la bbella ggente. At the lexical level, regionalisms abound,

especially for everyday objects produced locally: a ‘coat hanger’ is called ometto in

northern Italy, gruccia in central Italy and stampella in southern Italy; and in the absence

of a single national term, the small piece of thick cloth used to hold hot handles of pots

and pans is variously called presina, pattina, chiappino, pugnetta, cuscinetto and so on.

At the syntactic level, for example, northern Italian replaces the standard historic past

with the perfect: l’ho conosciuto dieci anni fa ‘I met him ten years ago’ versus lo

conobbi. Central Italian uses te instead of tu in sentences like vieni anche te? ‘are you

coming too?’. Southern Italian generalizes the use of the historic past—lo vidi stamattina

‘I saw him this morning’—and uses transitively many intransitive verbs: ho uscito il

bambino ‘I let the child out’. Even within the same region, the specific features of

regional Italian vary a great deal and are seldom found all together: in actual speech, they

are consistently more present and regionally more extreme the more informal the

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situation, the less educated and the older the speaker, and the more expressive the

intention. Thus, as with the standard, we can distinguish between high and low varieties

of regional Italian: the former are similar to the standard except for certain dialectal

phonetic choices, the latter are richer in dialectal features. For example, standard Italian

[kwanti anni avevi kwando ti sei spozato?] ‘how old were you when you married?’ may

be in Puglia respectively [kwandi anni avevi kwando ti sej sposato?] or [kwandi anni

tenevi kwando ti aj sposato?].

Popular Italian is a substandard variety, which is marked socially as belonging to

lesser educated speakers of the lower socioeconomic classes. Its main feature is a reduced

and simplified morphology, due to the fact that it is used mainly by native speakers of the

dialects with limited access to the standard. Yet, precisely because in this variety the local

dialects surface quite strongly, popular Italian is always marked regionally as well, both

in pronunciation and in the lexicon, so much so that it can be seen as an extreme form of

low regional Italian. On the other hand, its defining morphological traits are constant

thought Italy, since they depend more on intrinsic complexities of Italian than on the

external contact with the dialects. Some common tendencies of popular Italian are: (1) the

regularization of inflectional morphology, whereby such nouns as the standard moglie

‘wife’, mani ‘hands’ and camion ‘lorries’ become respectively moglia, mane and

camioni, and such verbs as the standard imperatives vada ‘you/sing, go’ and vengano

‘you/plur. come’ become respectively vadi and venghino; (2) the fragility of complex

systems, such as that of the unstressed personal pronouns, whereby ci tends to be used

not only for a noi ‘to us‘as in the standard but also for a lui ‘to him’, a lei ‘to her’ and a

loro ‘to them’; (3) the extension of the use of che, which we have already noted as a

feature of the new, low standard. This last tendency shows how difficult it is to draw a

clear borderline between the new, lower standard and popular Italian. Traits like the

overextension of che can define one or the other variety depending on whether they are

used orally by well educated upper-class young people in the most informal situations, or

in writing by old uneducated persons who are trying to do their best linguistically.

Beside these clearly labelled geographical and social varieties of Italian, there are

many other situational varieties, among which the sectorial languages are most

prominent. Other varieties are bound to the degree of formality of the situation in which

they are used, others again to the oral and written media. All these varieties become more

difficult to distinguish as most of their features cut across not only these subdivisions but

also the geographical and social ones. Thus, for example, the use of mica after the verb

instead of non before it (son mica scemo! ‘I’m not stupid!’) is at the same time a typical

oral, informal and northern Italian feature; while the anacoluthon in sentences like perché

io Palermo la mia città mi piace moltissimo ‘I love Palermo, my own city, very much’

may be puristically considered as belonging to popular Italian or more tolerantly to a

most informal, oral subvariety of the new, low standard.

See also: dialect usage; Italian language; Italian lexicon; Italian morphology; Italian

phonology; Italian syntax; language attitudes

Further reading

Berruto, G. (1989) ‘Main Topics and Findings in Italian Sociolinguistics’, International Journal of

the Sociology of Language 76:7–30.

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Lepschy, A.L. and Lepschy, G. (1977) The Italian Language Today, London:

Hutchinson (a description of contemporary Italian preceded by a long introduction

examining ‘some aspects of its history which have often led people to wonder whether an

“Italian” language really existed’).

Sobrero, A.A. (ed.) (1993) Introduzione all’italiano contemporaneo. La variazione e gli usi

(Introduction to Contemporary Italian: Variation and Usages), Bari: Laterza (especially chaps 1

and 2 by G. Berruto, and ch. 3 by Telmon).

CAMILLA BETTONI

Vassalli, Sebastiano

b. 25 October 1941, Genoa

Poet, novelist and critic

Sebastiano Vassalli’s first appearance on the cultural scene dates back to his participation

in the neoavantgarde movement in the early 1960s. After witnessing its end in the 1970s,

he turned from experimental narrative and poetry to the historical novel. By setting his

stories in clearcut temporal frames (such as the life of poet Dino Campana in La notte

delta cometa (The Night of the Comet) (1984), or the persecution of an eighteenth-

century alleged witch in La chimera (The Chimera), 1990), Vassalli has attempted to

explore the collective memory of the Italian people and to trace the formation of its

national identity. In addition to poetry and narrative, Vassalli has also published a

number of essays on Italian culture (Sangue e suolo (Blood and Soil), 1985) and language

(Il neo-italiano (Neo-Italian), 1989). Alien to any current literary trend or intellectual

group, he has lived in relative isolation in the country between Vercelli and Novara since

the early 1980s.

FRANCESCA PARMEGGIANI

Vatican

The term ‘Vatican’ designates the power centre of the Roman Catholic Church, also

called the Holy See or the Papacy. This short-hand term essentially dates from 1870

when, as a protest against the occupation of Rome by northern Italian troops, Pope Pius

IX withdrew into the Vatican, declaring himself to be its ‘prisoner’. Excommunicating

Italy’s rulers, the Pope and his successors continued their protests about the ‘Roman

Question’ by forbidding Italian Catholics to vote in elections and strove to enlist the

support of foreign powers for its solution. By 1929, however, relations between the

Papacy and the Italian state had improved immensely and with characteristic boldness,

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Mussolini was finally able to resolve all outstanding issues between them through the

Lateran Pacts.

From the view of the Papacy, the key feature of the Pacts was the restoration of a

portion of its former ‘temporal power’ in the shape of the one hundred-acre state of the

Vatican City. Since its emergence, this tiny state has evoked ambivalent responses from

Italians. Mussolini himself lamented the interference of what he described as a ‘foreign

state’ in Italy’s internal affairs when Pius XI resisted his will over issues such as

Catholic Action, Catholic youth and labour organizations and the racial laws of 1938.

However, postwar democratic ‘secular’ politicians have often voiced similar complaints,

particularly when popes like Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II have criticized Italian

legislation on divorce and abortion. On the other hand, there was an incestuous

relationship between the Vatican and the Italian Catholic political leadership during the

reign of Paul VI, when his prediletti (favourites) in the prewar Catholic student

movement—Andreotti, Colombo and Moro—became the leaders of the Christian

Democratic Party.

The presence of the Vatican and its subordinate organizations, universities and

seminaries scattered throughout the city obviously has a powerful impact on the economy

and prestige of Rome. The ‘sacred character of the city’, as the Lateran Pacts described it,

is no longer defended as zealously by the local authorities as it was in the immediate

postwar period, but Rome remains a great beneficiary of the pilgrimages and tourism

which that presence generates, and it is in the interests of the Roman authorities to

collaborate closely with the Vatican in preparations for 2000, the year of the ‘great

jubilee’.

The presence of the Vatican affects Italy in two other important ways, the first

financial and economic, the second in the area of international relations. Ever since

Bernardino Nogara shrewdly invested the cash and government stock which the Lateran

Pacts gave to the Papacy in compensation for the lost revenues from the former Papal

States, the Vatican has been a major player in the Italian economy, owning wholly or in

part a number of banks and manufacturing industries, and controlling large swathes of the

property market, especially in Rome itself. In recent years, Italy’s financial relations with

the Vatican have been soured by arguments over taxation of profits from these

investments and, above all, by the operations of the Vatican bank, the quaintly-named

‘Institute for Religious Works’. The latter’s involvement in the Sindona and Banco

Ambrosiano scandals in the 1970s and 1980s (see P2) eventually led to judicial action in

Italy against the president of the Vatican bank, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus.

No Italian government can afford to ignore the fact that the Vatican has one of the

largest diplomatic establishments in the world, maintaining relations with some one

hundred and sixty states and international organizations, including all the great and

medium-sized powers except China, and all the Islamic states except Saudia Arabia.

Mussolini himself attempted, largely without success, to harness the Vatican’s diplomatic

influence in order to further the objectives of Fascist foreign policy in the 1930s and

1940s. With the collapse of the regime in 1943, the balance of power between the

Vatican and Italy shifted radically. Since Italy had effectively ceased to exist as an

autonomous international entity, the Vatican was able to exercise a great deal of influence

over its future. Pius XII used his ‘special relationship’ with the USA, largely mediated by

his friend Cardinal Spellman of New York, to win American backing for De Gasperi and

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the Christian Democrats (see DC) and to mitigate the terms of the Allies’ peace treaty

with Italy in 1947. The pope was also chiefly instrumental in persuading the Christian

Democratic party to support De Gasperi and Sforza in taking Italy into NATO in 1949,

despite concerns about the neutrality of the Vatican in the event of war, and he also

strongly endorsed Italy’s participation in European integration in the 1950s.

Since then, there have been interesting and not unconnected parallels in the

development of the foreign policies of the two states. The change from the intransigent

hostility of Pius XII towards the Communist bloc in the initial Cold War period to the

‘opening to the East’ of Pope John XXIII and the subsequent development of the

Vatican’s ‘Ostpolitik’ was paralleled by Italy’s attempts to establish more cordial

political and trading relations with the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, attempts that

were clearly out of step with US policy. Italy, like the Vatican—though for ostensibly

different reasons—has also been cooler in its relations with Israel and warmer in those

with the Arab states than most Western Powers. During the 1991 Gulf War, John Paul

II’s appeals for peace were supported by an alliance of Catholics and Communists (PDS)

inside Italy. More recently, the Serbs have accused Italy of pandering to the Vatican’s

hegemonic aspirations in Europe by recognizing Croatia and Slovenia in 1991 and thus

helping to precipitate war in the former Yugoslavia.

Further reading

Kent, P. and Pollard, J.F. (1994) Papal Diplomacy in the Modern Era, New York:

Praeger (see the essays on Ostpolitik, Israel, Palestine and the Vietnam War).

Pompei, G.F. (1994) Un Ambasciatore in Vaticano: Diario 1969–1977 (An Ambassador in the

Vatican 1969–1977), Bologna: Il Mulino (an account of the tortuous and byzantine relations

between the Italian government and the Vatican in the latter part of the reign of Paul VI).

Raw, C. (1992) The Money Changers: How the Vatican Bank Enabled Roberto Calvi to Steal $250

Million for the Head of the P2 Masonic Lodge, London: Harvill.

Reese, T.J. (1996) Inside the Vatican: the Politics and Organisation of the Catholic Church,

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (the finest analysis of the institutions and the politics

of the Vatican).

JOHN POLLARD

Vattimo, Gianni

b. 4 January 1936, Turin

Philosopher

Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Uni-versity of Turin and one of the most

imaginative and influential philosophers of the later postwar period, Vattimo was also

highly visible as regular commentator on Italian society in the popular press. In the

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1950s, Vattimo studied at the University of Turin with Luigi Pareyson, who is credited

with having introduced existentialism into Italy in the 1940s, and then worked with Hans-

Georg Gadamer at the University of Heidelberg. Vattimo’s early work was on theories of

aesthetics in classical antiquity, but he came to be particularly known for his theories on

postmodernism and il pensiero debole (weak thought). In Le avventure della different

(The Adventures of Difference) (1979) and La fine della modernità (The End of

Modernity) (1985) Vattimo argues that the thought of Nietzsche and Heidegger prepared

the way for the more recent proclamations of the notion of difference and the end of the

modern era. In a later volume, La società trasparente (The Transparent Society) (1989)

he maintains that the postmodern condition is linked to the development of the mass

media, but rejects the belief that this will produce a more enlightened and ‘transparent’

society. Vattimo’s subsequent writings have dealt with the theme of religion.

LAURENCE SIMMONS

Vedova, Emilio

b. 9 August 1919, Venice

Painter

Vedova is the outstanding Italian exponent of l’informale, akin to American abstract

expressionism, and one of the few to develop a personal and recognizable style in his

great, swirling, chaotic action paintings of the 1950s and early 1960s, such as Ciclo ‘62

B.B.9 (Cycle ‘62 B.B.9) and the explosive Scontro di situazioni -I-I (Conflicting

Situations -I-I). The Plurimi series uses the same painting style, on various flat surfaces

arranged seemingly at will in three dimensions, which somewhat dissipates the effect by

breaking up the picture plane. The Tondi paintings, from the 1980s, are circular.

Vedova arrived at his own style via geometrical cubism, and participated in

avantgarde groupings such as Corrente, the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti (New Front of the

Arts), and the Gruppo degli otto (Group of Eight). Always deeply committed politically,

Vedova thought that social justice could be brought about with a radical avantgarde style

of art rather than through the didactic, illustrative style favoured by the Communist Party.

His works thus deal with social protest, time (in a generic sense) and conflict.

MAX STAPLES

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Veltroni, Walter

b. 3 July 1955, Rome

Politician and journalist

Following the victory of the Ulivo coalition at the 1996 elections, Veltroni became

Deputy President of the Council of Ministers, the first member of the PCI/PDS to hold

that office. He was also appointed minister for culture and sport. The party’s chief expert

in mass communications and propaganda, Veltroni had been a member of parliament

since 1987 and editor of L’Unità since 1992. As the most liberal democratic of the PDS

leadership, and an admirer of certain leaders of the Democratic Party in the USA, he led

the minority within the PDS who favoured the evolution of the Ulivo coalition towards a

single ‘democratic party’ encompassing the broad centre-left area of Italian politics. He

was a strong candidate for the PDS leadership upon Occhetto’s resignation in 1994, but

was defeated by D’Alema. Film critic for Il Venerdì, the television guide in La

Repubblica, he is also the author of several books on television, politics and political

figures, including studies of Robert Kennedy and Enrico Berlinguer.

CLAIRE KENNEDY

Venezia, Francesco

b. 28 September 1944, Lauro

Architect

Venezia’s work became prominent in the 1980s in the context of an architectural scene

generally lacking in direction. It stems from a keen understanding of the natural

landscape of Sicily and the Naples region which allows him to incorporate geological

strata and subterranean and hydrological elements into the architecture itself. As well as

building several urban landscape works, he has also continuously produced outstanding

competition projects.

Venezia’s intense meditation on the traditional Mediterranean values of light, shadow

and geometry, together with his tendency to recycle preexisting elements, is

outstandingly typified by his Museum in Gibellina Nuova, where he installed the

fragmented façade of a palazzo from the old earthquake-devastated city inside the walled

courtyard of the new museum thus creating a place of lyrical silence and resolution.

Further reading

Francesco Venezia (1990), Barcelona: Gustavo Gili (a catalogue of his works to 1987).

ROSS JENNER

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Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale was founded in 1895 by a group of Venetian intellectuals who

wanted to encourage artistic activity in their city. The frequently controversial

international arts festival has been held regularly every two years beginning in 1910 and

interrupted only twice during the years of the two world wars.

Until the First World War, the festival was dominated by academic art typical of world

expositions in the nineteenth century. Following the war, the Biennale assumed a more

modern orientation. In 1930 the Biennale became an autonomous state-funded body and

no longer the responsibility of the Venice City Council. The exhibition was expanded to

include fields other than figurative arts, taking in music, cinema, theatre and, for a limited

period, also poetry. In 1932 the Lido of Venice put on the first Mostra Internazionale

d’Arte Cinematografica (International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art), the first

international film festival of its kind. In 1934, the staging of the Merchant of Venice

added a theatrical festival to the Biennale which takes place in the various squares of the

city

After the Second World War the Biennale was once again restructured with

contemporary artists displaying not just single works but presenting entire shows. In

addition, retrospective exhibitions were encouraged focusing on major avantgarde

movements of the century (impressionism, expressionism, metaphysical painting). In the

1960s the Biennale hosted new movements such as pop art. In 1973 the organizational

structure of the Biennale was again changed, and its goals became specifically the

representation of recent trends in the fields of art and art theory with a focus on research,

documentation and experimentation. In 1976 ASAC (the Historical Archive of

Contemporary Arts) was relocated to the prestigious Palazzo corner of the Regina palace

to include a print library (with a special periodical and newspaper section), a film library,

a photographic library and a recorded music library, as well as an archive.

During the 1980s many of the controversies which had buffeted the Biennale in the

turbulent protest period of the late 1960s and early 1970s were quelled and a section

entitled Aperto 80’, focusing on the work of younger artists, was instated in the

International Art Exhibition. While the 1970s had offered occasional exhibitions of

architecture organized by the Visual Arts Section, the architecture section came into its

own in 1979.

Since then the Biennale has further expanded its scope to host, among other things, a

number of competitions for the reshaping and restoring of Venice. The centenary of the

Biennale’s foundation was celebrated in 1995 with a series of exhibitions: the 34th

International Theatre Festival, the 46th International Festival of Contemporary Music, the

46th International Art Exhibition, the 52nd International Exhibition of Cinematic Art, and

in 1996, the 6th International Architecture Exhibition.

Today, each country contributing to the Biennale has its own pavilion centred around

the original one, named the Italian pavilion. The twenty-seven pavilions are monuments

to the work of internationally acclaimed architects. The Biennale is also supported by

other cultural events such as annual international theatre and prose shows, and film and

contemporary music festivals which all coincide with Biennale events.

Further reading

Venturi, L. (1956) Four Steps Toward Modern Art: Giorgione, Caravaggio, Manet, Cézanne, New

York: Columbia University Press.

——(1964) History of Art Criticism, New York: Dutton.

MAX STAPLES

Verdi

The formation of a Federazione delle Liste Verdi (Federation of Green Lists) in

November 1986 was the outcome of co-operation between numerous Green political

organizations and signalled the arrival on the political landscape of a national political

party with a primary focus on environmental issues. The Italian electoral system, which

until 1993 was based on proportional representation, provided genuine opportunities for

minority parties to gain seats, and Green political organizations had already emerged in

the early 1980s to contest municipal elections. In 1985, Green groups secured 636,000

votes (2.1 per cent) in regional elections, and in 1988 the Federazione delle Liste Verdi

polled an average of 3.7 per cent in local, regional and provincial elections. In the

national election of 1987, Green groups received around one million votes (2.5 per cent)

and gained 13 seats in the Lower House and 2 in the Senate. The result was similar in

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