Carlo Bernari

Carlo Bernari , actually Carlo Bernard , (born October 13, 1909 in Naples , † October 22, 1992 in Rome ) was an Italian writer and journalist .

Life

Bernari came from a Neapolitan family of small business owners of French origin. As a difficult child who couldn't get used to any rules, he was kicked out of all schools and continued his cultural education as an autodidact . At first he worked as a tailor and at the same time began to write under various pseudonyms as a journalist and novelist . He also made a living by selling antiquarian books.

In Naples he met the literary critics Benedetto Croce and Francesco Flora and, with friends, founded the opposition cultural movement Unione Distruttivisti Attivisti (UDA; German Union of Destructivists and Activists ), also known as Udaismo . During his stay in Paris (1930–1932) he was enthusiastic about the artistic avant-garde currents active there , above all the surrealist circles around André Breton , Louis Aragon and Paul Éluard .

Back in Italy, Bernari recognized the need to express the problems in the working class and in 1934 published the generous novel Tre operai (Eng. Three Workers ), in which he described the working class in their inability to lead a dignified life as well in their resulting critical relationship to the ruling upper class. Due to the socially critical content of the book, it soon came into the sights of the fascist censorship authority , which saw it as a subversive undertaking against the Mussolini regime.

With Cesare Zavattini and Alberto Moravia Bernari 1939 initiated in Milan the magazine Tempo (dt. Time ). After a series of less important works and Bernari's secret resistance to fascism, a productive period began again in the first post-war period. The highly acclaimed neorealist novel Speranzella (1949) won the Premio Viareggio in 1950 . To focus his diligent journalistic and literary creation - especially as a screenwriter - was Rome , where he lived until his death 1992nd

Neorealistic storytelling

Bernari's writing style deliberately avoids rhetorical flourishes and creates sober prose, which was quite unusual in the times of the fascist dictatorship and the prevailing myth about Gabriele D'Annunzio . Also the subjects, which he deals with with great tension about the knowledge of the real living conditions of the workers and the social justice, were not at all common in comparison to the rest of contemporary Italian literature. With his special power of observation, he conveys people and things from a personal point of view, without losing sight of the social context of people alienated by factory work , and draws the reader's attention to the arduous life of the proletariat. Beyond the narrow-minded nationalist culture of the Mussolini era, Bernari became one of the most important southern Italian storytellers. The problems in post-war Italy, on the other hand, seemed to him to be a drama that all peoples had to overcome together. The testimony of his storytelling makes his first novel Tre operai - alongside Corrado Alvaros Gente in Aspromonte (1930) and Ignazio Silones Fontamara (1930) - one of the three most important pioneers of literary neorealism in Italy, which focuses on the cultural horizon of perception Poverty and social grievances in broad sections of the population expanded.

Works

prose

Tre operai (1934)
Quasi un secolo (1936)
Il pedaggio si paga all'altra sponda (1943)
Tre casi sospetti (1946)
Prologo alle tenebre (1947)
Speranzella (1949); Premio Viareggio 1950
Siamo tutti bambini (1951)
Vesuvio e pane (1952); Premio Salento
Domani e poi domani (1952)
Amore amaro (1958); Premio Augusto Borselli
Era l'anno del sole quieto (1964)
Per cause imprecisate (1965)
Le radiose giornate (1969)
Alberone eroe e altri racconti non esemplari (1971)
Un foro nel parabrezza (1971)
Tanto la rivoluzione non scoppierà (1976)
26 cose in versi (1977)
Dall'Etna al Vesuvio (1978)
Il cronista giudizioso (1979)
Dal Tevere al Po (1980)
Il giorno degli assassinii (1980)
Il grande letto (1988)
L'ombra del suicidio. Lo strano Conserti . (Created 1936; published posthumously 1993)
Gli stracci (1st version of Tre operai ; created 1930–1931; Ed .: Enrico Bernard) Genzano di Roma: Menichelli, 1994 ( ISBN 88-86383-02-9 )

Essays

Napoli pace e guerra (1946)
Il gigante Cina (1957)
Bibbia napoletana (1960)
Non gettate via la scala (1973)
Napoli silenzio e grida (1977)
Non invidiate la loro sorte (1991)

Poetry

26 cose in versi (1977)

German translations

Vesuvius no longer smokes . Berlin: Rütten & Loening, 1956
Speranzella . Stuttgart: Verlag Deutsche Volksbücher, 1962
The bright morning . Stuttgart: German Book Association, 1963

literature

Ragni, Eugenio: Invito alla lettura di Carlo Bernari . Milan: Mursia, 1978
Capozzi, Rocco: Carlo Bernari tra fantasia e realtà . Naples: Soc. ed. napoletana, 1984
Immaginario e rappresentazione nella letteratura del Sud. Special double issue in memoriam of Carlo Bernari . (Ed .: Sebastiano Martelli) Stony Brook (NY), 1993

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Bernari, Carlo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bernard, Carlo (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH	October 13, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH	Naples
DATE OF DEATH	October 22, 1992
Place of death	Rome