Friulian literature
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Friulian literature is the literature of the autonomous Italian region of Friuli, written in the local Friulian language.
Even if the first poems in Friulian are from the 14th century (anonymous works written in Cividale such as Piruç myò doç inculurit and Soneto furlan, close to the italian poetic movement Dolce Stil Novo), the birth of a full flavoured Friulian literature dates back only to the 19th century, when Friuli, after the congress of Vienna, fell entirely under the control of Austrian empire. This late flourishing had several causes: first, the language of the culture and administration had never been Friulian, but Latin and partly German under the Patriarchate of Aquileia and Italian, mixed with Venetian under the Serenissima rule; moreover, Friuli never saw the formation of a literate bourgeoisie, that could have fostered the language, in order to have a development similar to the other European languages. During the 16th century for example, there were only limited poetic forms in Friulian inspired to the works of Francesco Petrarca, among whom we can remember those of Nicolò Morlupino from Venzone (1528-1570) and Girolamo Biancone from Tolmezzo (1515-1580). It's worth to note that till 1800 there wasn't any printed work in Friulian, so the diffusion of poetry and other works was limited to a restricted number of person.
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[edit] 17th century
During this period, the most important authors were Eusebi Stele (Eusebio Stella) from Spilimbergo (1602-1671), born from a noble family, who composed poems in a playful and ironic style about his love adventures and his life, and the count Ermes di Colorêt (1622-1692), who is important mainly for the usage of the koinè from Udine, that will become the most notable literary language and it's the base of today's standard Friulian. He was educated at Medici's court in Florence, then took part at the Thirty years' war, worked at the service of Venice republic and of Leopold I from Habsburg; in the last part of his life he returned to his home land, to focus on poetry, who mainly revolves around love themes.
[edit] 18th century
This century was undoubtedly poor from Friulian literature's point of view, probably due to the increasing influence of Venetian language in the city of Udine. It's noteworthy, though, the publication of the first Friulian almanac (strolic or lunari in Friulian), in 1742; these kind of works will have great fortune in the following centuries and it contained short stories, poems, advice for agriculture, with an item for each day of the year.
[edit] 19th century
The first half of the century is similar to the previous one. The main author, which is today probably the most known in whole Friulian literature, is Pieri Çorut (Pietro Zorutti, 1792 – 1867); his poetic is plain, far from romanticism that had great success in that period; he devoted himself mainly to the almanacs, called Strolic furlans, published yearly from 1821 until 1867; his most famous work is Plovisine, composed in 1833. He enjoyed a great popularity during his life, and many tried to imitate his style. Nowadays his figure is rewarded mainly for the usage of central Friulian, that he contributed to elevate as literary language. Another author of almanacs was Antoni Broili (1796 – 1876), that reached better result from the literary point of view. In the second half, the scene in city of Gorizia was generally more vivacious than that of Udine; there was a different feeling of friulanity, and the environment was mitteleuropean, since the city (part of the county of Gorizia and Gradisca) was under the rule of Austro-Hungary kingdom, while Udine was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866. In Gorizia, many tried to use Friulian language in many different fields, such as applied siences, with good results; a good example is the almanac Il me paîs. Strenna popolâr pal 1855 by Federico de Comelli from Gradisca (1826-1892).
An important event, although very late in confront to the rest of other languages, was the publication of the first Friulian vocabulary, composed by abbot Jacopo Pirona and his nephew Giulio Andrea (1871), which is still today an interesting resource on the language; in 1873 come out the analysis on Friulian by Graziadio Isaia Ascoli, who started the so called Questione ladina.
In the end, deserves a mention Caterina Percoto, which has an important role in Italian literature of this century, but left only a few works in Friulian, mainly in popular traditions.
[edit] 20th century
At the beginning of 1900 Friuli seems far from the numerous avantgards of the period, also due to the difficult historical situation; the request of autonomy from the region didn't receive any answer from Italian authorities, and in 1933 the fascist regime prohibited any publication in Friulian. The most important authors of this time are Vittorio Cadel from Fanna (1884-1917), who composed poems with a sensual background that hides a deep feeling of sadness and discouragement; Ercole Carletti (1877-1946) from Udine, author of poems in a style close to Italian crepuscolarismo, and Celso Cescutti. A rare example of political and civil themes are Giovanni Minut's Rimis furlanis, from 1921; the author, born in Visco in 1895, was forced to fled to Uruguay when fascists took the power, and died there in 1967.
In the area of Gorizia, we can remember Delfo Zorzut from Cormons, that composed various collection of short stories (La furlane, Sturiutis furlanis) e gathered many popular legends and traditions, useful to keep alive the interest in the language.
But the most important experience in the 20th century was the Academiuta di lenga furlana founded by Pier Paolo Pasolini; he collected a group of writers in order to go beyond the old poetry inspired to Pieri Çorut's works, that was still imitated, to create a new modern Friulian poetry. Besides Pasolini, noteworthy are the figures of Domenico Naldini (who was his cousin) and Riccardo Castellani, that has never reached the poetical peaks of the leader; their works were in the Concordiese dialect of Friulian, in polemic with the use of Central Friulian as the only literary standard. Other experiences came out after World War II; Franco de Gironcoli, from Gorizia, who studied and analysed poems from Ermes di Colorêt and the Pirona vocabulary, composed from 1944 on several short lyrics, dedicated mainly to the flowing of the time. A hard work of promotion and standardization of the language was performed by the priest Josef Marchet, who tried to arrange a Friulian grammatic in "Lineamenti di grammatica friulana", with the purpose of helping the development of a standard variant; he also published in 1950 the collection "Risultive", where he gathered several interesting poets emerged in that time, among whom we point out Novella Cantarutti from Spilimbergo, Dino Virgili, composer of the novel L'aghe dapit la cleve, and Lelo Cjanton (Aurelio Cantoni). In the second half of the century it's worth a note novel "Prima di sera", written in Friulian in 1971 by Carlo Sgorlon, a famous Italian writer.
