Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies

Beginning with the publication of the manuscript entitled Diario 1935, drafted during his Roman imprisonment and kept at the Centro Manoscritti in Pavia, the contribution examines the relationships between Levi's major works and the testimonies recorded in his diaries. More specifically, the essay reflects on the consistency of the “convergent” conception of time and the idea of memory as “co-presence and coexistence,” concepts that lend an introspective dimension to Levi's entire body of work. The source text not only integrates with the author's overall production but also with the temperament of those years, during which Pavese, while confined, protested the condition of limitation, and simultaneously deepened his reflection on memory as a “second time” and return. This introspection, far from excluding external influences, engages in constant dialogue with the “outside”: the “time outside of time” and “outside of the body,” within the pragmatic framework of the cell, serves as an instrument for analyzing and understanding historical events, rather than being a regressive escape from them.

The following article, part of a broader research dedicated to studying the theme of the “sacred” in Carlo Levi's work during the interwar period, seeks to trace Levi's reflections on this theme as they emerge in documents from his period of confinement (1935–1936), both in letters to family or friends and in a personal writing such as the Prison Notebook. Although Levi will give an explicit definition of the concept of the “sacred” only in 1939, at the beginning of the essay “Fear of Freedom”, the early articles and archival documents preceding 1939 suggest that his reflections on “religion” and the “sacred” have been central to his thought before then. In particular, the experience of confinement seems to play a determining role in the development of his ideas on this theme.

America is a recurring subject in the works of Carlo Levi, and many of his writings on this country and its culture fall within the tradition of travel literature. Levi's interest in the United States, which can be traced between 1945 and 1960, follows a unique itinerary. Levi constructs a personal American myth long before visiting the country: over the years he develops, revisits, and overcomes this myth. This essay retraces the steps of this journey, attempting to contextualize the evolution of the American theme in Levi's writings, both within the tradition of twentieth century travel literature, and in relation to the reportages that Levi offered from other parts of the world. The goal is to transcend the very definition of travel literature, which is limiting for Levi's writings on American subjects.

Drawing from diary notes housed in the Renzo Deaglio Library in Alassio, this essay revisits two literary events featuring Carlo Levi in 1958. The first event pertains to Levi's composition of the preface for Einaudi's publication of Tristram Shandy that same year. In the preface, Levi subtly juxtaposes it with L’Orologio, interpreting Sterne's anti-narrative structure and penchant for digression—symbolized by the “marbled page”, likened to a Pollock painting—as a means of escaping time's grasp. The second event involves the controversy surrounding Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize for Doctor Zhivago. Levi, steering clear of public discourse, closely monitors the affair within the pages of his diary, offering incisive critiques of the novel and sketching a sardonic portrayal of the Italian intellectual elite.

The Fondo Carlo Levi, housed in the Alassio Library “Renzo Deaglio”, preserves transcripts of speeches recorded from April 20 to 22, 1985, during the Carlo Levi scrittore conference organized by the Fondazione Carlo Levi on the tenth anniversary of Levi's death. This 156-page booklet captures the “memoirs” of friends who accompanied Levi throughout his life – such as Giulio Einaudi, Natalia Ginzburg, Manlio Cancogni, and Giovanni Russo – as well as contributions from a younger generation of readers and scholars. Through an overview of these unpublished typescripts, this paper traces key moments from the conference that offer fresh insights into Levi's life, including his time in the “maternal” town of Alassio, his years in Florence (1943–1945), and his return to Lucania for the 1946 election campaign. Among the most compelling contributions, Cancogni discusses the genesis of L’Orologio, while Russo explores the reception of Cristo si è fermato a Eboli. Additionally, several scholars, including Luisa Orioli, Gigliola De Donato, Lorenzo Mondo, and Carlo Caltagirone, analyzed Levi's posthumous book, Quaderno a cancelli, examining a text not yet fully integrated into scholarly debate at the time.

The article examines the friendship between two anti-fascists, both born and raised in Turin: Piero Gobetti and Carlo Levi. Starting from the influence that Gobetti exercised on the development of Levi's anti-fascism, from the common search for sources of political dynamism and energy that they both thought were lacking in the ruling classes of Italy in the first decades of the 20th century, the article goes on to indicate how and where Levi's thought and practice overcome Gobetti's initial influence and take on less elitist contours.

Apocalittici o crociani? Note su Paura della libertà, Carlo Levi's debt to his “master-enemy” Benedetto Croce has been both acknowledged and disavowed by critics. Nevertheless, several notes from a 1933 notebook might further certify this influence. Held at the Carlo Levi Fund of the Renzo Deaglio Library in Alassio, its unpublished transcription is reproduced here in the appendix. The diary, which also contains much information about Levi's industrious painting activity, includes notes from the complete reading of Poesia e non poesia. Note sulla letteratura europea del secolo decimonono by Croce, published by Laterza in 1923. This essay focuses on the complex relationship that binds Levi to the controversial philosophical and aesthetic legacy of the Neapolitan thinker, as with many other intellectuals of his generation.

The essay retraces Carlo Levi's relationships with the “maestro” Tommaso Fiore, a classicist, anti-fascist, and southern Italian thinker. Fiore, through his letters in La rivoluzione liberale (1925–1926), pioneered a style of poetic investigative prose on the conditions of southern peasants, which might have influenced Levi. The essay also explores other potential points of intersection between Levi and Fiore, such as the academic volume La poesia di Virgilio (1930), which could have inspired some famous passages in Cristo si è fermato a Eboli.

The essay aims to trace the political trajectory of Carlo Levi between his first trip to the United States with Ferruccio Parri, in the spring of 1947, and the 1948 political elections, which followed six months after the dissolution of the Action Party and its merger into the Italian Socialist Party. The author examines Levi’s biography through some of its most significant milestones, illuminated by his correspondence, the important article “Guerra e Pace”, published in L’Italia Socialista and never collected in book form, and his collaboration with Aldo Garosci’s newspaper in the previously unseen role of political cartoonist.

This article delves into the relationship between Carlo Levi's L'Orologio (The Watch, 1950) and Primo Levi's Se questo è un uomo (If This Is a Man, 1947). Following a brief overview of passages where Carlo Levi addresses themes of extermination, deportation, and return from concentration camps (not limited to Jews), the article highlights some intertextual connections to suggest that Se questo è un uomo served as one of the literary influences for L'Orologio. Particularly, the portrayal of a Roman survivor by Carlo Levi echoes the character of Elias in Primo Levi's work. Lastly, the article examines Carlo Levi's position within the circle of friends and relatives who welcomed Primo Levi upon his return to Italy and engaged in discussions regarding the first edition of Se questo è un uomo.

Carlo Levi and Primo Levi both came from the extraordinarily fertile soil of Turinese antifascism. The two were fundamentally different in character and outlook: Carlo gregarious, extroverted, expansive; Primo reserved, introverted, even shy. Their critique of an “eternal fascism” shared a lineage from Piero Gobetti to Norberto Bobbio, passing through Giustizia e Libertà and the Partito d’Azione. The two Levis shared this theory of fascism's irradicable persistence as well as a radical humanism that they felt was our last remaining weapon against tyranny. This must be seen not just as a bulwark against fascism but as the only possible way of organizing human society in the 21st century.

Analyzing some of Carlo Levi's best-known pages, this contribution highlights three fundamental topics that permeate his oeuvre. From Christ Stopped at Eboli, the theme of birth and separation emerges in the revelation of anthropological affinities and the conflict between historically distant civilizations: the rationalistic, industrial, and urban (Turin, Paris) versus the mythic-poetic, peasant (Aliano, Lucania), both assimilated by a “southerner from Turin.” From The Watch, the theme centers on historical-political conception and disillusionment during the transition from the Resistance, rich with opportunities, to the obtuse democratic restoration of the post-war period, highlighting the persistent conflict between producers (“Contadini”) and those who appropriate their work (“Luigini”). Finally, from an unpublished diary page about an exhibition of Jackson Pollock, this paper explores the theme of the conflict between a painting of gesture and transformation and an avant-garde painting obsessed with deformation and death.

Beginning with the Carlo Levi Archive housed at the Central State Archive, this contribution introduces, for the first time, the Carlo Levi Fund of the National Central Library of Rome, providing a detailed analysis of the preserved documents as well as the rediscovered books from the author's personal library.

Nel 2022 sono stati celebrati i 120 anni dalla nascita di Carlo Levi (1922–2022). Il Convegno internazionale “Tra le carte di Carlo Levi: scrittura, arte, impegno civile”, tenutosi ad Alassio, la città che Levi scelse come residenza estiva tra il 1929 e il 1975 (anno della sua scomparsa), nei giorni 23 e 24 settembre 2022 ha rappresentato un momento importante di confronto tra professionisti e docenti che si sono confrontati su arte, scrittura, impegno politico e civile presenti nelle opere di Levi. Le due giornate hanno visto la condivisione, quasi una messa in scena, un'apertura totale al pubblico nazionale e internazionale collegato in videoconferenza, dei diversi studi e percorsi di ricerca conclusi e in corso sulle carte di Levi. Il saggio che segue ha lo scopo di condividere una riflessione collettiva sulle possibilità di valorizzazione delle carte leviane conservate presso il Centro manoscritti dell'Università di Pavia e di indicare possibili modelli e innovative metodologie per l'unificazione virtuale dei fondi e della memoria leviana.

This contribution retraces the initial exploration of Carlo Levi's photographic collection, a survey that led to the digital acquisition of over fifteen hundred photographs, now available online through the Fondazione Carlo Levi. This collection is heterogeneous in both materials and subjects, consisting of images that depict lesser-known aspects of Levi's personal and professional journeys. The essay also examines Levi's relationship with prominent international photographers, such as Seymour and Cartier-Bresson, who were driven by a shared desire to document the troubled Italy of the post-war period. Levi's fame is also highlighted by numerous portraits taken by renowned photographers, including Sorci, Di Bella, Vechten, Newman, Morin, Leslie Gill, and Erwitt. Finally, the collection features an extensive series of travel photographs by Levi himself. This overview seeks to broaden the biographical and professional understanding of Levi as an artist.

In 2019, the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Genoa and the provinces of Imperia, La Spezia, and Savona initiated a comparative technical study on the works of the Carlo Levi Gallery in Alassio. The study aimed to investigate the conservation status of the paintings in relation to environmental variables and the various techniques employed by the painter throughout his artistic career. This paper examines the findings of this research, aiming to provide a useful tool for similar investigations into the artist's works in other Italian museums. Additionally, the authors analyze the restoration of the Portrait of Italo Calvino conducted in 2021–2022.

Levi's relationship with cinema dates back to the 1930s, when he authored several set designs and film subjects. This experience gained more prominence following the publication and international success of Christ Stopped at Eboli. Plans for a film adaptation of the novel engaged Levi in a lengthy and complex dialogue with directors and producers, both Italian and foreign. This 30-year struggle concluded only after Levi's death, with Francesco Rosi's 1979 adaptation. This essay chronicles the efforts to adapt Levi's novel by examining a trove of unpublished material, including an early treatment of Christ by Levi and Rocco Scotellaro from 1949. An appendix to this essay includes a variation on this subject proposed by American producers but rejected by Levi, and a “Memoir for the Scriptwriters”, in which Levi offers previously undisclosed insights into the narrative, aesthetic, and ideological aspects of his masterpiece.