Friulian Literature - 20th Century

20th Century

At the beginning of 1900 Friuli seemed far from the numerous avant-gardes of the period, at least in part due to its difficult historical situation; the regional request for autonomy received no response from the Italian authorities, and in 1933 the fascist regime prohibited any publications in Friulian. The most important authors of this time were Vittorio Cadel of Fanna (1884-1917), who composed poems with a sensual background, concealing a deep feeling of sadness and discouragement; Ercole Carletti (1877-1946) of Udine, author of poems in a style close to Italian crepuscolarismo; and Celso Cescutti. A rare example of political and civil themes can be found in Giovanni Minut's Rimis furlanis (1921). Minut, born in Visco in 1895, was forced to flee to Uruguay when the fascists came to power; he died there in 1967.

In the area of Gorizia, Delfo Zorzut of Cormons composed various collections of short stories (La furlane, Sturiutis furlanis) and gathered many popular legends and traditions, useful to keep alive an interest in the language.

But the most important Friulian work of the 20th century was the Academiuta di lenga furlana, founded by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Pasolini collected a group of writers in order to go beyond the old poetry inspired by Pieri Çorut's works, which was still imitated, to create a new and modern Friulian poetry. Other noteworthy figures in the movement include Domenico Naldini (Pasolini's cousin) and Riccardo Castellani. Neither, however, reached the poetical heights of their leader. Their works were in the Concordiese dialect of Friulian, in polemic with the use of Central Friulian as the only literary standard.

Other developments after World War II included the lyrical works of Franco de Gironcoli, from Gorizia. Gironcoli studied and analysed poems from Ermes di Colorêt and the Pirona vocabulary, and from 1944 on he composed several short lyrics, dedicated mainly to the flowing of time.

Josef Marchet, a priest, began the difficult work of promoting and standardizing the language; he tried to arrange a Friulian grammatic in Lineamenti di grammatica friulana, with the purpose of developing a standard variant of the language. In 1950 he also published the collection Risultive, wherein were gathered the works of several interesting Friulian poets of the time (including Novella Cantarutti from Spilimbergo; Dino Virgili, composer of the novel L'aghe dapit la cleve; and Lelo Cjanton (Aurelio Cantoni)).

1971 saw the publication of a translation with the title Prime di sere of the novel Il vento nel vigneto, written in Italian by the Friulian writer Carlo Sgorlon, which enjoyed a good success.