The most recent studies on Sardinian literature

An important turning point in studies on Sardinian literature was marked in 1989 by the publication of an essay by Giovanni Pirodda “Sardinia”, in the prestigious space in “Italian Literature” directed by Alberto Asor Rosa. Previously, the essential reference point was the history of Sardinian literature by Francesco Alziator, a work still rich in news and curiosities.

Starting from 1984-85, Pirodda, a professor at the Cagliari University, inaugurated a series of monographic courses on regional literature. Inspired by the theories of Carlo Dionisotti (1908-1998), he affirms the need to review the history of Italian literature from an even geographical perspective. Abandoning the nationalist and militant historiography of De Sanctis, or the idealist one of Croce, he points out that Sardinia is much more decentralized than other lands compared to Italian literary production.

This approach has made it possible to initiate more precise studies on the island's complex (and multilingual) literary production, also in its identity aspects. “Italian literature directed by Asor Rosa - wrote Cristina Lavinio in “Narrating an Island. Language and style of Sardinian writers” - it is a work that, for better or for worse, can no longer be ignored in the field of literary criticism, just as Pirodda's contribution to Sardinian literature becomes a useful point of reference for studies that can and must be developed regarding the issues addressed to you”. Giovanni Pirodda's anthology “Sardinia”, published in 1992, is already a staple in this regard.

In recent years, the studies of Nicola Tanda, a professor at the University of Sassari, have been of particular importance, who has come to affirm the need for a 'special statute' for Sardinian literature, considering 'the autonomy of Sardinian nationalitarian culture compared to the Italian national culture'. This approach connects, from a federalist perspective, the various subsets of regional literatures that constitute the backbone of Italian literary production. For Tanda, it is necessary to move from “Italian Literature” to “Italian Literature”, that is, to those real and distinct realities that make up Italy, including Sardinia with its multilingual identity.

In this historical-critical context, the importance given to production in the Sardinian language is maximum. “Unlike Italy - writes Tanda in the collection of essays “An Odyssey of Nobas Rhymes” - today we have the dual presence of the Sardinian linguistic and literary system and the Italian linguistic and literary system in two different applications... Those who feel Sardinian and identify themselves with Sardinian speakers, can write about their universe of Sardinian experience, in Italian and in Sardinian, while those who feel Italian because they come from Italian families in which they identify themselves, especially in big cities, they write in Italian, but have also as a reference point for an Italian experience”.

Today, every single writer could freely choose one of these three options. Of note is the recent history of literature “In the presence of all the languages of the world. Sardinian literature” by Giuseppe Marci, who already in the title explains a cultural and critical program in

this regard.

Update

19/9/2023 - 09:41