Federigo Tozzi

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Federigo Tozzi

Federigo Tozzi (born January 1, 1883 in Siena , † March 21, 1920 in Rome ) was an Italian writer .

life and work

Sign pointing to the house where Federigo Tozzi was born in what is now Via Banchi di Sopra in Siena
Residence of Federigo Tozzi’s father in Pari (municipality of Civitella Paganico )
Sign on my father's house in Pari ( My house is everywhere I am: in a piazza, in a theater, a cafe or in the plains. But I have been to my father's home country more than once )

Federigo Tozzi was the son of the innkeeper Federigo Tozzi (called Ghigo del Sasso, born in Pari (today municipality of Civitella Paganico)), who ran the Il Sasso restaurant (Trattoria del Sasso, also called del Sasso Rosso ) in Via dei Rossi and country estates in Siena (Podere Castagneto as the main property (later literarily processed as Poggio a 'meli ), as well as the Podere Pecorile) south of Siena on the Tressa . His mother was Annunziata Automi. He was the last of eight children, all of whom died in childhood, and was born in Via Banchi di Sopra near the Arco dei Rossi in the adjoining house of the family restaurant. First he attended the Arcivescovile seminar in Siena, then he went to high school, from which he was expelled in 1895 due to misconduct. His mother died on October 25 of the same year. In 1902 he finally left school. In the same year he began to exchange letters with his future wife Emma Palagi. From 1908 he worked as a railway clerk in Pontedera (March and April) and Florence (until May 15, when his father died), after which he ran his father's property. Also in 1908 he married Emma Palagi, a year later in August their son Glauco was born. In 1911 his first volume of poetry ( La zampogna verde ) was published. In 1913 he began work on his first novel Con gli occhi chiusi (Eng. With closed eyes ), a strongly autobiographical text. Also in 1913 he founded the magazine La Torre with Domenico Giuliòtti (* 1877 in San Casciano in Val di Pesa , † 1956 in Greve in Chianti ) , which only had seven issues. After the estate was sold in 1914, Tozzi went to Rome as a journalist in the same year, where, surprised by the outbreak of war, he initially became a volunteer in the press department of the Red Cross . In 1918 he joined the editorial team of Messaggero della Domenica . The writers Luigi Pirandello and Orio Vergani (* 1898 in Milan ; † 1960 ibid.) Became aware of him through his writing activities for the newspaper, and they also encouraged him. Tozzi died of pneumonia in Rome in 1920 .

Federigo Tozzi has been considered a classic of Italian modernism for several decades , but also one of the few great Tuscan authors. After Italo Calvino , he is one of the great European writers of Italian origin. His style is concise and laconic. According to Alberto Moravia , Tozzi describes great tragedies in simple terms.

criticism

In the book market of Germany radio says a review of 2011 published in Wagenbach Verlag Romans 2 April 2012 With eyes closed (Paperback), which had been in 1988 already published (in German) by Piper Verlag (Munich):

  • " Tozzi 's writing is trained in Flaubert's impassibility. He does not complain or accuse when something is broken, but rather points with a sharp eye at the broken glass: Take a look! " And: "A lucid novel of silent depth, a voice, a sound that stays in the ear like the ringing of bells that is lost in the hills of Siena."

The literary critic Giuseppe Petronio (1909–2003) writes in his History of Italian Literature about Tozzi's work:

  • "Tozzi's characters are related to the failures of the entire European literature of the 20th century and differ from the defeated Vergas and the Verists in that their constant defeats take place within the personalities and they are surrounded by a tragic, gloomy atmosphere, which is generated by a lyrically alienated landscape and surroundings. "

Otherwise, one can hardly speak of a critical appreciation of the great Italian author in Germany. Tozzi was hardly noticed by German literary criticism.

Works (selection)

  • La zampogna verde (1911), poems
  • La città della Vergine (1913), poems
  • Bestie (1915) (German beasts ), lyrical-fragmentary sketches
  • Le cose più belle di Santa Caterina da Siena (1918)
  • Con gli occhi chiusi (1919) (Eng. With closed eyes ), novel
  • Giovani (1920), novel
  • Tre croci (1920) (German: three crosses ), novel
  • Il podere (1921) (Eng. The homestead ), novel
  • Ricordi di un impiegato (1927) (Eng. Memories of an employee ), novel
  • Novella (Eng. A beloved ), stories
  • Bestie, cose, persone (Eng. Animals, things, people ), prose miniatures

literature

  • Georg Maag: Federigo Tozzi's 'Bestie' and Giorgio Celli's 'Bestiario postmoderno'. In: Gisela Febel, Georg Maag (Hrsg.): Bestiaries in the field of tension between the Middle Ages and the modern. Gunter Narr Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-8233-5176-1 , pp. 160-170.
  • Giuseppe Petronio: History of Italian Literature. Volume 3: From Verism to the Present. UTB , Tübingen / Basel 1993, ISBN 3-8252-1700-0 , p. 248.

Web links

Commons : Federigo Tozzi  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Federigo Tozzi  - Quotes (Italian)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In ricordo di Federigo Tozzi. ( Memento of October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) at: www.parionline.it , accessed on July 6, 2013 (Italian)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Eduoardo Esposito in Federigo Tozzi: Con gli occhi chiusi / Riccordi di un impiegato. (Preface: Cronologia della vita e delle opere), Feltrinelli , Milan 2011, ISBN 978-88-07-82092-2 , pp. XXXV ff.
  3. ^ A b Luigi Baldacci in Federigo Tozzi: Il podere. (Foreword), Garzanti Verlag, Milan 2002, ISBN 88-11-36339-X , p. VII ff.
  4. ↑ a b c Enciclopedie on line Treccani
  5. ↑ a b Website of the Sistema Informativo Unificato per le Soprintendenze Archivistiche (SIUSA) of the Direzioni Regionali per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici to Federigo Tozzi
  6. ↑ Giuseppe Izzi: GIULIOTTI, Domenico. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Volume 57, 2002.
  7. ↑ Orio Vergani in Enciclopedie on line at treccani.it
  8. ^ Piper Verlag
  9. ↑ Gabriele Killert: A melancholy good-for-nothing. In: Book Market Deutschlandfunk . April 2, 2012, accessed July 4, 2013.
  10. ↑ Giuseppe Petronio in Enciclopedie on line at treccani.it
  11. ↑ cf. Petronio
personal data
SURNAME Tozzi, Federigo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Siena
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1920
Place of death Rome