Making Italian New: Pound’s Italian Between Dante and Propaganda

A thorough and multidisciplinary reading (linguistic, stylistic, rhetorical, inter-textual, literary, poetic, mythological, historical, ideological and political) of Ezra Pound’s Italian in general, and of the “Italian Cantos” (Cantos 72 and 73: 1944/45) in particular, these latter being the most representative of the poet’s relationship with Italian language. Through the comparison between the unpublished drafts (Yale) and the printed version of these two Cantos, the crosscheck of literary sources, the analysis of stylistic registers—oscillating between the most faithful “Dantism” as regards lexicon, versification, and tone, and the mannerist echoing of the rhetoric of fascist propaganda of the time—there comes out a multifaceted, stratified and problematic picture of Pound’s relationship with Italian language, literature, and authors.

Un’analisi approfondita e multidisciplinare (linguistica, stilistica, retorica, intertestuale, letteraria, poetica, mitologica, storica, ideologico-politica) sull’italiano di Ezra Pound in generale, e sui due “Italian Cantos” (Canto 72 e 73: 1944/45) in particolare, emblematici del suo rapporto con la lingua italiana. Attraverso il confronto tra i “drafts” inediti (Yale) e la versione definitiva, il riscontro delle fonti letterarie, l’analisi dei registri stilistici—oscillanti tra il dantismo più fedele per lessico, metrica e tono, e l’imitazione abbastanza di maniera della retorica e della propaganda fascista dell’epoca—si configura un quadro sfaccettato, stratificato e problematico del rapporto tra il poeta americano e la lingua, la letteratura e gli autori italiani.