Vittorio Bodini
Vittorio Bodini was an Italian poet and political figure born in Bari, Apulia, but he considered Lecce, a baroque city in the region, his true home. Coming from an aristocratic family, his maternal grandfather, Pietro Marti, played a significant role in his upbringing, fostering both a love for literature and a keen interest in politics. Bodini's academic journey took him from Apulia to Rome and later to Florence, where he earned his doctoral degree. Initially influenced by futurism, he shifted his poetic style around 1939 to embrace a more hermetic approach, although he later disavowed his early works.
During World War II, Bodini became involved in anti-Fascist journalism and took a leadership role in the Workers' Democratic Party in Rome. His later career saw a pivot towards Spanish literature, which he studied and taught after being appointed to the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid. His poetry evolved to reflect the cultural and economic landscape of southern Italy, with notable collections such as "Dopo la luna," which earned him the Carducci Prize in 1956. Bodini's work remains significant for its exploration of regional identity and the socio-political conditions of his time, culminating in his later poetry reflecting on postindustrial changes in Apulia.
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Vittorio Bodini
Poet
- Born: January 6, 1914
- Birthplace: Bari, Italy
- Died: December 1, 1970
- Place of death: Rome, Italy
Biography
Although Vittorio Bodini was born in Bari, the capital of the southern Italian region of Apulia, his true home was Apulia’s cultural hub, the baroque city of Lecce. Bodini’s family was part of Lecce’s aristocracy; his maternal grandfather, Pietro Marti, a scholar and historian, was one of Lecce’s most notable citizens. Marti served as a surrogate father to Bodini, whose own father died when Bodini was an infant. Marti edited a number of prestigious journals published in Lecce and instilled in his grandson both a pride in his region and an interest in politics.
Bodini left Apulia for Rome to attend university. When the politically aware Bodini became oppressed by the stultifying air of the Italian capital, he moved to Florence, where he received his doctoral degree from the University of Florence in 1937. Even before entering the university, Bodini had declared his political and artistic allegiance in a futurist manifesto written with Elèmo d’Avila and published in 1932. Bodini had also established himself as a published poet, substituting his own rebellious futurist verses for other more staid compositions submitted to his grandfather’s journals. Later, Bodini would disavow these early poetic compositions and date the inception of his poetic career from 1939, when he began to publish a series of verses written in the suggestive, symbolic style of the hermetic poets.
During World War II, Bodini dropped his hermetic orientation in favor of anti-Fascist journalism, and in 1945 he left Apulia to assume the leadership of the Workers’ Democratic Party in Rome. Towards the end of the decade, disillusioned by politics, Bodini developed an interest in Spanish literature and culture which led to his appointment to the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid. He later became a professor of Spanish literature at the University of Bari and the University of Pescara. Bodini also returned to writing poetry, this time managing to combine both his poetic gifts and his allegiance to his native region in poems evoking the folklore, the flora, and the apparently eternally depressed economy of southern Italy. One collection of verses, Dopo la luna, won Bodini the Carducci Prize in 1956. The poetry of Bodini’s later collections, in particular Metamor (1967), reflects an interest in postindustrial conditions in his ancestral region that brought his career full circle.