GUIDO GOZZANO AND THE CREPUSCULAR GAZE

AN INTRODUCTION TO GOZZANIAN POETRY

Abstract

This article aims to introduce the Italian poet Guido Gozzano (1883-1916), contextualizing the reader regarding the historical, cultural, and literary period that he lived and wrote in, to facilitate the apprehension of the messages contained in his poetry, which offers a new perspective on the complex 20th century. In light of this objective, the work begins with an introduction to the Novecento and the literary movement labeled as Crepuscularism, illustrating its fundamental characteristics and how it reflected the diversity of the time, before moving on to Gozzano. Born in Turin, the poet was an admirer and avid reader of influential figures in Italian literature, such as Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938). In the first decades, he eventually started to distance himself from the refined dannunziano aesthetic, becoming the representative of crepuscular aesthetics after the publication of the books La via del rifugio (1907) and I Colloqui (1911), which highlight his ability to blend irony and melancholy through colloquial language and traditional meter, addressing themes such as inadequacy and illness, which originated in the second half of the 19th century with the effects of post-unification. After presenting this fundamental overview, and considering the importance of bringing Guido Gozzano to light to emphasize the importance of his work for Italian literature studies in Brazil, an analysis of the illustrious poem Alle soglie (1911) will be carried out with reflections obtained from reviews on the theme of translation, an activity that helped in the resolution of the first task, favoring the development of research in the area.