History of Contemporary Italian Literature

Author: Shen Aomei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1997-05-01
Features: Italian literature is an extremely important part of the world's literary treasure. The literature and art of Italy in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance are renowned worldwide. "The great Florentine poet," the pioneer of humanism Dante (1262-1321), rose Italy's literature to the forefront of European literature at the time with his "immortal poem" The Divine Comedy. The outstanding representative of humanism Boccaccio (1313-1375) laid the foundation for Italian prose with his novella The Decameron, exerting a profound influence on Western European realistic literature. Another outstanding representative of humanism Petrarch (1304-1374) pioneered a new poetic style with his collection of poems The Canzoniere, greatly influencing European lyric poetry during the Renaissance. The immortal and brilliant works they wrote for all of humanity have become a common wealth of people around the world. After the globally celebrated realist comedy master Goldoni (1707-1793) emerged in the 18th century, romanticism and realism literary trends rose around the time of Italy's unification, giving rise to the great romantic poet Leopardi (1798-1837) and the great novelist Verga (1840-1922), who caused a great stir in the literary circles of the entire Western Europe.