Mario Alicata
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Mario Alicata (8 May 1918, Reggio Calabria - 6 December 1966,
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
) was an
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
Partisan, literary critic and politician.


Biography


Early life

Son of the Sicilians Antonino Alicata and Luigina Fazio-Allmayer, he was born at Reggio Calabria, where his father was head of the civil engineers. From 1925 he studied at Palermo and then from 1933 in the
Liceo classico Liceo classico or Ginnasio (literally ''classical lyceum'') is the oldest, public secondary school type in Italy. Its educational curriculum spans over five years, when students are generally about 14 to 19 years of age. Until 1969, this was ...
Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...
in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, where his family had relocated after his father was appointed Inspector of the
Ministry of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...
. With
Bruno Zevi Bruno Zevi (22 January 1918 – 9 January 2000) was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author, and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of "classicizing" modern architecture and postmodernism. Early life Zevi was born and died i ...
, Paolo Alatri,
Carlo Cassola Carlo Cassola (17 March 1917 – 29 January 1987) was an influential Italian novelist and essayist. His novel ''La Ragazza di Bube'' (1960), which received the Strega Prize, was adapted into a film of the same name by Luigi Comencini in 1963. ...
and other schoolmates, he founded the ''Circolo giovanile di cultura moderna'' (Youth Group for Modern Culture). In 1936 he enrolled in the Faculty of literature at the
Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...
, becoming part of the Gruppo universitario fascista and participating in the student competitions ( Littoriali della cultura e dell'arte) organised by fascist students' organisation at
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
in 1937 and at Palermo in 1938, where he came eighth.


Partisan activity

During these years, Alicata came into contact with many young antifascist students, such as
Pietro Ingrao Pietro Ingrao (30 March 1915 – 27 September 2015) was an Italian politician and journalist who participated in the resistance movement. For many years he was a senior figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Political career Ingrao was bo ...
, Carlo Salinari, Mario Socrate,
Carlo Muscetta Carlo Muscetta (22 August 1912 – 22 March 2004) was a poet who became better known as a literary critic and, later, as an editor of literary magazines. He also had a parallel career in teaching, employed as a university professor of Liter ...
, Aldo Natoli, Lucio Lombardo Radice, Paolo Alatri and Paolo Bufalini. He also collaborated with the Roman newspaper ''
Il Piccolo ''Il Piccolo'' is the main daily newspaper of Trieste, Italy. Its name derives from the paper's original ''small'' format. History and profile ''Il Piccolo'' was founded by Teodoro Mayer in 1881. He was also the owner and editor-in-chief of the ...
'',
Giuseppe Bottai Giuseppe Bottai (3 September 1895 – 9 January 1959) was an Italian journalist, and member of the National Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini. Early life Born in Rome, Giuseppe was son of Luigi, a wine dealer with republican sympathies, and Elen ...
's journal '' Primato'', the literary weeklies '' Il Meridiano di Roma'' and '' La Ruota''. He secretly enrolled in the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
in 1940, the year in which he graduated with his these ''Vincenzo Gravina e l'estetica del primo Settecento'' (Vincenzo Gravina and the Aesthetic of the early Eighteenth century). He then became the assistant of Natalino Sapegno, who had been his supervisor. In 1941 he became an editor in the Roman office of the publishing house Einaudi with Giaime Pintor and Carlo Muscetta. There he dramatised several stories of
Giovanni Verga Giovanni Carmelo Verga di Fontanabianca (; 2 September 1840 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian realist ('' verista'') writer, best known for his depictions of life in his native Sicily, especially the short story and later play ''Cavalleria ...
for the cinema and worked for
Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...
on the film ''
Ossessione ''Ossessione'' (, English: ''Obsession'') is a 1943 Italian film based on the 1934 novel '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' by James M. Cain. Luchino Visconti’s first feature film, it is considered by many to be the first Italian neorealist fi ...
'' (based on James M. Cain's '' The Postman Always Rings Twice''), which was destroyed in 1943 by the Fascist authorities amid controversy. He married Giuliana Spaini in December 1941. He was arrested the next year and was freed with the fall of Fascism. He participated in the resistance against the German occupiers in Roma, running '' Il Lavoro italiano'' the united journal of the labour unions with the
Christian democrat Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
Alberto Canaletti Gaudenti and the socialist Olindo Vernocchi. He was secretly among the editors of ''
l'Unità ''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian language, Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, ...
'', directed by
Celeste Negarville Celeste Negarville (17 June 1905 – 18 July 1959) was an Italian communist, journalist and politician, first director of the post-war newspaper l'Unità and undersecretary for foreign affairs in the Parri and De Gasperi governments. He was bor ...
.


Political and literary career

Immediately after the liberation of Rome, he became part of the government of the
Comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
of Rome. From 1945 to 1948 he directed the Neapolitan newspaper ''La Voce'', in 1946 he was elected as a local councillor for Naples, in 1949 he directed the communist weekly ''La Voce del Mezzogiorno'' with
Giorgio Amendola Giorgio Amendola (21 November 1907 – 5 June 1980) was an Italian writer and politician. He is regarded and often cited as one of the main precursors of the Olive Tree. Born in Rome in 1907, Amendola was the son of Lithuanian intellectual Eva ...
. In the election of 18 April 1948 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from the district of Napoli-Caserta. Thereafter he was named Regional Secretary of the Communist party in Calabria and became a member of the central committee of the Italian Communist Party. In 1950 he became part of the secretariat of the national committee for the revival of Southern Italy, which set up an investigation of the conditions of the southern people, published in ''La Voce del Mezzogiorno''. He was spokesman for the minority in the Parliamentary commission which discussed the results of the investigation. Re-elected as a Deputy in 1953 and 1958, for the district of Catanzaro-Cosenza-Reggio Calabria, he was also Mayor of
Melissa, Calabria Melissa ( Calabrian: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Crotone, in Calabria. The village Melissa is situated in the mountainous inland, while the ''frazione'' of Torre Melissa is on the Ionian Sea coast. The Melissa DOC is a Calabrian wine regi ...
from 1953. Against
Elio Vittorini Elio Vittorini (; 23 July 1908 – 12 February 1966) was an Italian writer and novelist. He was a contemporary of Cesare Pavese and an influential voice in the modernist school of novel writing. His best-known work is the anti-fascist novel '' Co ...
he claimed he was convinced the arts ought to help "men in the fight for justice and liberty," in a polemic continued by
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on the theme of the relationship between politics and culture. Against
Carlo Levi Carlo Levi () (29 November 1902 – 4 January 1975) was an Italian painter, writer, activist, communist, and doctor. He is best known for his book '' Cristo si è fermato a Eboli'' (''Christ Stopped at Eboli''), published in 1945, a memoir of ...
and
Rocco Scotellaro Rocco Scotellaro (19 April 1923 – 15 December 1953) was an Italian poet, writer and politician. Life and career Born in Tricarico, in the Province of Matera, the son of a shoemaker and a homemade seamstress, Scotellaro studied law at the ...
, Alicata maintained that the revival of the southern farmers could be obtained through "the alliance and the direction of the working class" which would fight against "the traditional enemies of the South: the agro-industrial bloc, Italian and foreign imperialism."M. Alicata, ''Il meridionalismo non si può fermare ad Eboli'', in «Cronache meridionali», I, 1954, p. 602. From 1954 to 1964 he directed the journal, '' Cronache meridionali'' with Giorgio Amendola,
Francesco De Martino Francesco de Martino (31 May 1907 – 18 November 2002) was an Italian jurist, politician, lifetime senator (1991–2002) and former Vice President of the Council of Ministers. He was considered by many to be the conscience of the Italian Social ...
,
Gerardo Chiaromonte Gerardo Chiaromonte (November 29, 1924 – April 7, 1993) was an Italian communist politician, engineer, journalist, and writer. Biography He was born in Naples on November 29, 1924 into a poor family from Roccanova, a small village in the prov ...
, Giorgio Napolitano, Rosario Villari and others. He directed the Cultural Commission of the Italian Communist Party from 1955, was a member of the Party directorate from 1956 and was director of ''L'Unità'' from 1962. He signed the editorial of the first issue of the theoretical journal '' Critica marxista'' in February 1963, the same year in which he was reelected as Deputy from the district of Siena. From 1964 he was a member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party. In August 1966, he denounced the damage done to
Agrigento Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...
by real estate speculation and in his final speech in the chamber he accused the managerial class of being incapable of protecting Italy's artistic patrimony. He died suddenly at Rome on 6 December 1966, aged forty-eight.


Notes


Bibliography

* Albertina Vittoria
''Alicata, Mario''
«DBI», XXXIV, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia italiana, 1988


External links


Record of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
(Italian)
Inventory of the Archive of the Interregional Institute of Communist Studies: Mario Alicata
(Italian)

(Italian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alicata, Mario 1918 births 1966 deaths Italian literary critics Italian male writers 20th-century Italian politicians Italian Communist Party politicians Italian resistance movement members Marxist journalists People from Reggio Calabria L'Unità editors