Crepuscolari

{{Short description|Italian poetic movement (early 20th century)}} The '''Crepusculars''' ({{langx|it|Poeti Crepuscolari}}, {{lit|Twilight Poets}}, {{IPA|it|poˈɛti krepuskoˈlaːri|pron}}) were a group of Italian post-decadent poets whose work is notable for its use of musical and mood-conveying language and its general tone of despondency. The group's metaphorical name, coined in 1910 by literary critic Giuseppe Antonio Borgese to refer to a condition of decline, describes a number of poets whose melancholic writings were a response to the modernization of the early 20th century.<ref name="Oxford">{{cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature|editor= Peter Hainsworth and David Robey|author=Raffaele Donnarumma|chapter=Crepuscolari|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198183327|year=2002}}</ref>

The Crepusculars were not a centrally organized movement, and the writers in this group of poets were active in three different regions the country: Carlo Chiaves, Guido Gozzano, Nino Oxilia, and Carlo Vallini in the Piedmont region of Northwest Italy; Corrado Govoni and Marino Moretti in the Romagna region of Northeast Italy; and Sergio Corazzini and Fausto Maria Martini in Rome.<ref name="Oxford"/>

Their attitude represents a reaction to the content-poetry and rhetorical style of (Nobel Prize–winning poet) Giosue Carducci and Gabriele D'Annunzio, favouring instead the unadorned language and homely themes typical of Giovanni Pascoli.<ref name="Oxford"/> These poets refuse to pursue the ‘poetic mission’, distinguishing themselves from the authors of the previous generation. Guido Gozzano famously defined himself as a “thing with two legs also known as guidogozzano”, almost as if he felt ashamed to play the role of an enlightened artist.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.letteraturaitalia.it/5-autori-e-opere-novecento/i-crepuscolari-guido-gozzano/|title=Crepuscolari |website=www.letteraturaitalia.it/|access-date=2023-05-29}}</ref> An affinity existed with the French symbolists (see Paul Valéry, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane Mallarmé).<ref name="Oxford"/> It has been said that Guido Gozzano was the most competent exponent of the movement.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

The writer Guelfo Civinini is sometimes included as a member of the ''crepuscolari'' based on his 1901 work ''L'urna'', but this has been contested by some scholars based on his other body of work.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature|editor= Peter Hainsworth and David Robey|author=Paul Barnaby|chapter=Civinini, Guelfo|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198183327|year=2002}}</ref>

==Period== Crepuscolars were active roughly between 1899, year of the release of ''Cesellature'' by Tito Marrone, and 1911, year that saw the publication of ''Colloqui'' by Guido Gozzano.

== References == {{reflist}} William Rose Benét, ''The Reader's Encyclopedia'', Thomas Y. Crowell.

Peter Brand and Lino Pertile, ''The Cambridge History of Italian Literature'', Cambridge University Press.

Category:Italian poetry Category:20th-century Italian literature Category:Italian literary movements