Italian literature

Introduction
Early vernacular literature
- The influence of France
- The Sicilian school
- The Tuscan poets
- The new style
- Comic verse
- Religious poetry
- Prose
The 14th century
- Dante (1265–1321)
- Petrarch (1304–74)
- Boccaccio (1313–75)
- Popular literature and romances
- Religious and historical literature
The Renaissance
- The age of humanism
- The rise of vernacular literature
- Political, historical, biographical, and moral literature
- Poetry
- Drama
- Narrative
17th-century literature
- Poetry and prose
- Music drama and the Accademia dell’Arcadia
Developments in the 18th century
- Reform of the tragic theater
- Goldoni’s reform of comedy
- The world of learning
- The Enlightenment (Illuminismo)
Literary trends of the 19th century
- Romanticism
- Opposing movements
- The Risorgimento and after
- The veristi and other narrative writers
The 20th century
- Gabriele D’Annunzio’s nationalism
- Benedetto Croce’s criticism
- Literary trends before World War I
- The “return to order”
- Luigi Pirandello
- The Hermetic movement
- Social commitment and the new realism
- Other writings
- The end of the century
  - Poetry after World War II
  - Experimentalism and the new avant-garde
  - Dialect poetry
  - Theater
  - Women writers
  - Fiction at the turn of the 21st century
  - Facing the new millennium

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

St. Francis of Assisi

Why has Dante's Inferno been important to Irish writers and artists?

Portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli by Santi di Tito shows Machiavelli in black and red robes, holding a document, against a plain background.

Baldassare Castiglione

Commedia dell'arte

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Benedetto Croce

Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carra, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, and Gino Severini, founders of the Futurist Movement, stand side by side in coats and hats.

Luigi Pirandello

Italian literature: Media

Videos

Why has Dante's Inferno been important to Irish writers and artists?

Why has Dante's Inferno been important to Irish writers and artists?

Learn about the importance of Dante's Inferno to Irish writers...

Video: University College Cork, Ireland (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Images

Dante

Portrait of Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi

Portrait of St. Francis of Assisi; in the Collection of Museo Civico di Rieti, Italy.

© Heritage Images—Hultion Fine Art Collection/Getty Images

Portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli by Santi di Tito shows Machiavelli in black and red robes, holding a document, against a plain background.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli, oil painting by Santi di Tito, in the Palazzo Vecchio,...

© brandstaetter images—Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images

Baldassare Castiglione

Baldassare Castiglione

Baldassare Castiglione, portrait by Raphael, 1516; in the Louvre, Paris.

© Fine Art Images—Heritage Images/Getty Images

Commedia dell'arte

Commedia dell'arte

Commedia dell'arte character Harlequin carrying a batte, or slapstick, performing...

Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce.

H. Roger-Viollet

Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carra, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, and Gino Severini, founders of the Futurist Movement, stand side by side in coats and hats.

Futurism

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (center), the founder of the Futurist movement, with the...

Hulton Archives/Getty Images

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello.

Courtesy of the Italian Institute, London

Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco, 1984.

Rob Bogaerts—Anefo/Nationaal Archief

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